“Meet the Koreans” is a series of articles dedicated to introducing and popularizing Korean Overwatch and its storylines among Western fans. This entry focuses on Afreeca Freecs Blue’s Recry.

In a world in which everyone has at their fingertips access to more information than the largest library can hold physically and computing power that's thousands of times higher than what landed a man on the moon, it seems that tales of monsters meant to scare misbehaving children are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Even the most frightening of demons and villains are relegated to being an exciting bedtime tale and clearly understood to be fiction, as opposed to something meant to scare one into eating their vegetables.

This is not at all dissimilar to the direction which team-based video games have been moving in the recent years. Whereas in the late 90s and early 2000s, a monstrous individual performance could easily earn one a win in a QuakeWorld TDM match, now, such games are becoming more and more about working as a unit. Titles like Overwatch, and to an even higher degree Heroes of the Storm, are designed from the earliest stages with teamwork and communication being a core component of the gameplay experience and required for one to succeed. The ability for an individual to pull off spectacular plays remains, but the impact those have on the results is lessened by design.

However, despite Blizzard's best efforts, fiends that can single-handedly change the outcome of a game and terrorize the opponents with otherworldly individual play are very much real inside the Overwatch servers.

Afreeca Freecs Blue's Jeong "Recry" Taek-hyun is one such a player.

He takes part of the elite cadre of monstrous Korean players, who boast stunning skillsets, allowing them to carry a game versus any team in the world, as well as the ability to do it on many different heroes. Recry's game is not as well-rounded as Hwang "Fl0w3R" Yeon Oh's, as smart as Kim "birdring" Ji Hyuk's, nor as versatile as Kim "Libero" Hye Sung's. What he has going for him though, is the terrifying mechanical prowess, which equals the footing in terms of game impact.

Coming from the land of the dead

The tales of boogeyman say that he originated in a place called the land of the dead. The team which Western viewers first learned about Recry, Afreeca Freecs Red, can very much be considered part of the land of the dead within the professional Overwatch scene. The squad failed to qualify for APEX S1 and since Recry's talents were too great to be allowed to waste away in Challenger, he was moved to sister-team Blue, who had qualified. Ever since, despite at times being thought of as the better of the two Afreeca teams, Red has barely had any relevance to the top professional scene. Their biggest accomplishment is qualifying for APEX S2, but the main event saw them failing to win a single map. Subsequently, the squad also failed to requalify for APEX S3, while objectively lacking teams like Flash Lux and Rhinos Gaming Wings did so by besting them in a direct contest. After Recry's leave, Red was found lacking in terms of strategy and individual performances.

However, this isn't to say that Blue is, or ever was, the promised land of Overwatch teams, or anything close to it. Only a month past his addition to the team Recry stood head and shoulders above the rest, a position not dissimilar to the one in Red. The second best player for the squad's  nearly a year-long existence has been ArHaN, who despite the obvious talents is ofttimes seen initiate overly aggressive plays and refuses to get out of his limited comfort zone, when it comes to hero selection. Despite the team playing in a number of international events and all seasons of APEX, the third best player to ever represent AF Blue's is the recent addition of Yoo "Lucid" Jun Seo. The Ana and Zenyatta support is a strong performer, but definitely not an elite player, even within his position. The rest of the players' individual levels, despite some showing promise at times, have been ranging from above average to atrocious in Park "Dayfly" Jeong’s and Ahn "yesman" Jun-hyuk’s cases. Regardless of those deficiencies, Recry carried the team to a runner-up finish in the first season of Korea's premier event.

And while in APEX S1 AF Blue showed impressive management of the ultimate economy, there hasn't been anything extraordinary about their behavior as a unit of six past that point. In APEX S2, we saw the team ride Recry's monstrous performances to a Ro8 finish, with none of the other players being top 8 performers within their own positions. What's even more impressive, he managed to do it without being the primary beneficiary of the team's resources and for the most part staying off of his selfish and hard-carry picks like Pharah and Hanzo.

The monster without a face

Akin to how the boogeyman has no defined appearance, with the concepts of it varying wildly between cultures, neither is a  carry performance by Recry restricted to a specific hero or playstyle. Rather, the constant is terrifyingly superb mechanics and play characterized by the ability to carry almost single-handedly, even against the best teams in the world. Against a lesser opposition, his games are highlight reels, one after another, of him devouring the enemies.

Recently, at least in official games, AF Blue's super-star has amassed hours on Soldier 76 and McCree, but he's also been able to switch seamlessly to Tracer, barely losing a step in terms of impact. His latest match saw him add Sombra to his hero-pool. Without breaking a single sweat, he was both everywhere and nowhere as far as X6 were concerned, constantly overwhelming them and creating space for his teammates. However, Recry isn't limited to neither hitscan, nor the game's more mobile and self-sufficient DPSes, despite focusing on such characters in recent months. One only needs to roll back the metaphorical tape only half a year to see him deliver some of the most impressive Pharah and Hanzo carry-performances from any professional Overwatch match. The same VODs also see him regularly winning Reaper-on-Reaper duels, which he starts with half the opponent's health points.

Recry's game is not as well-rounded as Fl0w3R's, as smart as birdring's, or as versatile as Libero's. What he has going for him though, is the incredible mechanical prowess, which equals the footing in terms of game impact.

In the core of Recry's otherworldly play, no matter the hero, stands his impressive mechanics. Yet, to simply call him a great aimer would be to understate his talents. The term can be used to describe Kim "Haksal" Hyo Jong, Timo "Taimou" Kettunen and Jonathan "HarryHook" Tejedor, who each excel and are one of the best in respectively, predicting enemy's position to hit with a projectile, flicking across the screen onto opponent's head and tracking a moving target. Recry's phenomenal skills allow him to go toe-to-toe with each of those at the aiming style they excel at. The final ingredient to his already impressive skillset is the uncanny ability to juke incoming shots better than most. One of the moves, which made Miro explode in popularity, is strafing around Winston's barrier to dodge enemy shots. AF Blue's super-star can generate seemingly similar levels of frustration in opponents, without a barrier or a terrain aiding him, simply moving back and forth.

No monster is invulnerable

With all the praise one might think that Recry's in-game avatars are hardly vulnerable, if at all, but akin to a well-written antagonist, his gameplay is not without flaws. A key one is his decision-making.

Players like Libero and birdring often use positioning and their gamesense to make shooting at the enemies easier than it is for those to return the fire, but in this aspect Recry is much more similar to his teammate ArHaN than he is to the aforementioned. While he doesn't attempt to push carts alone versus six, or use an ultimate when everyone else on his squad is dead or charging up their own, he often positions too much ahead of cover or aid. Thus, he is is forced to use his mechanics to bail himself out of a situation he didn't need to be. The thought process that puts him in such positions is certainly the same that makes him the playmaker he is, but as shown by players like birdring and HarryHook, an explosive and proactive play doesn't necessarily need to be reckless as well.

Another blemish against his talents is that he seemingly lacks ego that often comes with being a star-player. Despite regularly having shown the ability to be a primary carry, ever since APEX S1, we have not seen Recry stick to his comfort zone and hard-carry heroes in the same manner his teammate ArHaN does. Whether he lacks the self-confidence to ask for it, or Afreeca's coaches have decided against it, he also doesn't get the lion's share of Nanoboosts, shields, heals and attention. In the current situation, it helps him synergize better with the overly demanding ArHaN, but it also limits the team's ceiling as the de facto best player isn't receiving the resources required for him to reach his full potential.

Regardless of both flaws, it is very clear that Recry is a player at the super-star level and one of, if not the, best at what he does. And even if AF Blue is unlikely to lift the trophy, Recry will be lurking in the playoffs, biding his time and waiting for one of the elite teams to misbehave and not practice as much as they should. And that will be the boogeyman's cue to strike and remind the world that no matter how bright the light of teamplay is, individual monsters still lurk in the shadows of the lower tier teams.

Go to practice, seonsoo, go to practice now,

or the boogeyman will come and eat you.

Photo credits: OGN

About the author: Hello readers, I go by the ID RadoN! I’ve been following different games within the esports industry ever since finding out about it in 2009. The titles that I follow closely for the time being are Overwatch, CS:GO and Quake Live, while occasionally dabbling in SFV, Dota 2 and LoL. If you wish to reach out, follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on esports, you can find me on twitter at @RadoNonfire.