Lee 'Flame' Ho-Jong, Top laner of CJ Entus Blaze, is the star of the 42nd episode of 'Reflections'. This episode was recorded on June 5th. Subtitles for my questions have been added in Korean, so that Koreans speakers can enjoy the interview also.
Flame directly addresses numerous criticisms often leveled against himself and Blaze. It's rare for Korean professional gamers to answer questions in-depth, but Flame answers at length in an honest and open manner.
Time line of topics discussed:
00:05 Intro 00:34 Pressure upon joining Blaze and replacing Reapered 01:47 Spamming a few champions prior to joining Blaze. 03:17 Did he spam champions in solo q in the tank meta also? 05:07 Copying or learning from Shy. 07:18 Does he still think back on the OGN Spring 2013 final loss to MVP Ozone? 11:12 Flame's thoughts during the OGN finals ceremony, when he looked angry receiving the cheque. 15:01 Did his carry role in Blaze develop due to him having a forceful personality? 16:32 Criticisms that Blaze is stuck in the past with their late-game scaling champion comps. 19:27 Top laners being unable to hard carry during Flame's era. 20:46 Perceptions that Flame thinks he must carry and win his lane. 21:38 Locodoco's criticisms of Flame, made on Summoning Insight, and his subsequent change of heart. 24:53 Claims that Flame should play Top lane like Save, from NaJin Shield. 31:29 Playing Darien (M5 and Gambit) 33:45 Impact at his best and now. 38:19 The rumoured Blaze and Frost superteam, with Flame at Mid. How would Flame do as a Mid laner? 40:18 The OGN Masters semi-final game vs. Samsung White, getting red buff accidentally on Irelia. 42:32 Message for Western fans, including thoughts on Blaze's coaching, philosophy on champions and the public's reaction to their coaches.
I used to think Flame was the ultimate "could've been" top-laner of all time, but it just cannot be denied that his strengths are not all encompassing. Having a strong laning phase and knowing when and how to trade, knowing the ins-and-outs of wave control, and knowing exactly how to deny your enemy champion's farm isn't what constitutes the best top laner any more, and I don't even think Flame was by far the best in the above mentioned category when comapared to his contemporaries. Expession in his prime was unbelievably strong if you just look at his laning phase, and was held back by his team even more than Flame was. There's only so much you can do with the two arguments of having mediocre teammates, and being "stronger individually" in theory under very specific circumstances, in the end, you can only be judged for what you overcame, not what held you back from being as awesome as you could have been.
That being said, Flame's dedication to the game simply cannot be denied, which is more than what can be said for a lot of players. But I fear that it is not his dedication, or innate talent as a professional gamer that will decide his fate. Riot Gaming simply love playing god, and are often more influential to the performances of the professional gamers than any other third party member. Once a metagame that suits Flame and the rest of his team comes around, Flame certainly has it in him to become the best player of his position once again, but that's exactly the problem with the game. Players themselves rarely get to prove it to others that they are the best, Riot Gaming just randomly changes the game around whichever way it tickles them, and whoever happened to be good at what the new metagmae requires are way more rewarded than they should be. It's just silly. I don't want a bunch of game designers to have that much control over the scene, especially having witnessed some of the dumb shit they've done over the years.
Thorin sometimes you make it easy to hate you then you release stuff like this and it makes me reconsider my thoughts. Guess it's an English thing ^__^ .
Hey Thorin, I really enjoyed the interview and the dual-language subtitles was awesome and the quality of the translations were great. Although I think the translation of "운영" might be a little inaccurate at times, probably because it's an abstract term and could be translated in various ways depending on how it's being used. The English subs consistently translated it as "rotation" which isn't wrong because that is what people are generally referring to in-context of the game, but at times I feel like it might make more sense to translate it as "management" or just simply "strategy".
This word in particular gets a little dicey at times because the way the Koreans use it, both players and casters, have a lot of connection with how it was broadly used in Starcraft, and I guess I want to kind of keep a connection with how it was understood and translated in foreign Starcraft. "운영" doesn't literally mean "rotation" in any shape or form, and the only real connection the two terms have is with how NA/EU casters generally call lane management "rotation". So I can understand the choice for using "rotation" given how a lot of NA/EU players and fans are just more accustomed to this term, but while lane rotations are a part of "game management/strategy", it doesn't really encompass the bigger sense of the word "운영" and consequently there are a few instances where the English translation renders the meaning of Flame's sentences a bit askew.
This is only a small little thing from the whole of your great interview though, and it doesn't really take away from the incredible work you guys put into your interviews. I've personally translated Korean poetry to English before, which is always far harder to do than it might seem, so the fact that your team translated an hour long interview, both Korean to English and English to Korean(!), is super cool to me. I really appreciate the work you guys put into this and I'm looking forward to watching more of your future interviews!
edit: I just skimmed through some of the TL.net team's LoL interview translations and they seem to translate the word similarly as well. Having spent years upon years on TL.net and reading how the community has generally interpreted certain words in-context of games probably plays a big role here, admittedly.
Wow, that thread prefigures my first contact with TL by a year or so I think! Within the confines of this Flame interview the way he uses the term seems to resemble "strategy" the most I think, especially in the second-last part of the interview where he's talking about practice methods.
Adding to the chorus of those who are saying great interview.
I feel like Thorin always attempts to encourage interviewees to think deeply about situations and provide deep responses. Sometimes it works better than others and this was one of those times. It was awesome to see Flame really elaborate extensively on such a broad range of topics. Really enjoyable.
Even Flame said Impact wasnt bad or worse than Flame when T1 K was winning everything so Thorin got shut down really hard.He was ranting all the time how Flame was universally the best top laner in the world meanwhile Flame said that wasnt true at all....