Last April, DailyeSports had interviewed ‘Frozen’ Tae-il Kim, who were playing for the Turkish side Fenerbahce in the mid lane. At the time, Frozen had revealed his ambition to ‘make it to Worlds, based on the experiences from the Winter split’. It seems that Frozen had worked hard to keep his promise during the last four months, as his team came in 1st at the Summer split and swept Supermassive by3-0 in the finals for the Turkish league, grasping the championship and the ticket to Worlds.

What would have changed Frozen and Fenerbahce to win the Turkish league during the last four month? We’ve met Frozen, whose team has been bootcamping in Korea since September, to hear about him regarding the driving force of championship, the recent situations, and the expectations for the Worlds.


◆ 80% of the Credit Belongs to ‘Move’ Min-su Kang
The driving force of Frozen dominating the Turkish league was the new jungle in the team. ‘Move’ Min-su Kang, who continued his career in China and Europe, had relieved Frozen of his duty of shot-calling, thus letting him focus on his lane opponents. Frozen had continuously emphasized Move’s help as the reason of winning the Summer split.

Q You have finally made it to Worlds. How do you feel?
A It feels lovely. When I first became a professional gamer, my first goal was to win the LCK, but as League of Legends became popular, participating in the World Championship has also grasped my interest. I think it’s meaningful to have achieved something in Turkey, which I could not do so back in Korea.

Q At the last interview on April, you had many regrets on the Winter split (Turkish league calls the usual Spring split as Winter split). Were you able to overcome the obstacles which you had to face then?
A When I first played for Fenerbahce, the team had too many things to work on. Throughout the Winter split, I had been continuously talking about what to improve. Move coming into the team was a godsend.

Q Are you talking about ‘Move’ Minsu Kang, who used to play in the EU LCS until the last season?
A Yes. Move used to play in the LSPL, and Korean fans would know him as the jungle for Unicorns of Love in the 2016 roster. He also used to play for Dark Passage during the winter, and Fenerbahce scouted him to play in the Summer split.


Q Have you heard of ‘Move’ before?
A I used to play with Move in Alienware. Although the team was not well-known to the fans due to poor performance, I already had high expectations for Move’s performance. He’s a very smart jungle.

Q What was Move especially good at?
A Move was a player with almost every statistics in his head. A good jungle should always check when the jungle camps respawn, when the drakes and Baron Nashors are taken, and when the enemy resurrects. Move exceeds these standards, and memorizes every statistics needed in LOL, such as ult cooldowns of every champs, cooldowns, or damages per each skills. With these data, the briefings of Move have benefitedthe entire team. Move admitted that he was able to learn a lot from ‘Clearlove’ Minkai. Move learned how Clearlove was memorizing these statistics and informing the teammates.

Q How was the team able to recruit such a good player?
A Move and I were friends since we were in Alienware, and we used to play as a duo in solo rank games. I kept telling Move that we should play together as he continued his career in China, Europe and Turkey. Due to the contract issues, Move couldn’t stay at Unicorns of Love, and he wasn’t given the credit his strengths deserved in Dark Passage. Our team was thinking about changing our jungle changed before the Summer split, and after I heard that Move didn’t sign with any teams, I told the coaches that we should recruit Move to our team.

Q At the previous interview in April, you commented that it was difficult to observe the entire game and communicate with the team while playing as a mid laner. Were you able to split the roles you had to do before with Move?
A Move took almost 80% of the roles I had to perform during the Winter split. He was not only a great jungle, but also took the burden of observing the game off from my shoulder. Thanks to him I was able to be more focused in the laning phase. As people who watched our game during the Summer split would know, I almost never lost the laning phase. It was thanks to Move observing the game and briefing the situations to the teammates.

Q What would be Move’s biggest weaknesses?
A Although Move is good at dealing with the details throughout the game, he tends to hesitate when making big decisions. And that’s when I make the calls. I call the shots when hunting Nashor, in 5v5 teamfights, or having to use teleports to engage in big teamfights.

Q Weren’t there any troubles between you two?
A It was a week after Move came into the team, when we had a big fight. I wanted him to do so much at once. Since I felt like I met a great jungle, I wanted him to perform almost three times better than the opponent during the scrim. I think that was a big pressure for him, since he was very new to the team, and so he responded back aggressively.So we went outside had some serious talk, and Move told me that he needed some time to get used to the team. We became better friends afterwards, and since then everything went really nice and smooth.


◆ “Frozen is another Yeon-koung Kim” said the CEO of Fenerbahce

At the finals of the Summer split, through which the winner secures the spot for the Worlds, the CEO of Fenerbahce was also there to watch the team play against Supermassive. As already known, Fenerbahce is a multi-sport organization with football, basketball, and volleyball team, which had also formed the League of Legends team after observing the potential of esports.

After reaching the Worlds in less than a year after the team’s establishment in 2016, the CEO of Fenerbahce commented on Frozen that he’s like “another Yeon-koung Kim”. Frozen responded that “although I feel the heavy responsibility, I will do my best in Worlds for the names of the Turkish team to be honored”.

Q The Finals at the Summer split was just magnificent.
A We played the finals in Fenerbahce’s basketball stadium. It was really nice to play in front of many fans, and we were able to sweep Supermassive 3-0 after trying hard to perform our best.

Q I’m sure the team officials must have been ecstatic to see you win.
A The CEO of Fenerbahce was at the stadium to watch the game, and we went to the championship party together too. I still cannot remember his name, but I’ve heard that he was one of the top 3 richest man in Turkey. I want to apologize to him for not being able to remember his name.

Q What did the CEO say? Did he propose long contracts too? (Laughs)
A He gave me a handshake, and told me to play for the team next year. I asked him to take a picture with the team, and as he posed for it, he also commented that “Frozen was like another Kim Yeon-koung’. During the dinner, he asked me about how long I could play as a player, so I said “probably for the next or three years”. He told me to ‘participate in the team as a coach or manager, even after retiring as a player, to develop the whole team”.

Q Do you still plan to continue your career in Turkey?
A I learnt a lot while playing in Turkey. I wouldn’t have as much affection to the team if I had just played as a player, but I spent the first year as if I was the playing coach, and the affection grew up as we made it to Worlds together.

Q I remember you mentioning the same thing at the last interview.
A I love making new ideas. As the new versions were adopted to the game, I had planned new compositions and practiced with the teammates to develop the strategy. Since I love giving out feedbacks actively and teaching the professional mindset I acquired back in Korea to those in Turkey, I almost acted as I was a coach. After looking at players develop throughout the Winter and Summer splits, I thought of becoming a coach in the future.


Q You said that you almost acted as a playing coach. Do you have any interesting episodes?
A One day, we had an active feedback after the scrim, and our support got really discouraged. I took him out for a walk and had a long talk with my poor English. I emphasized his strengths, rather than pointing out his weaknesses, and his plays got much better afterwards. I once told the coaches at Longzhu that I wish to become the coach of Longzhu later, and I think I am on an internship in Fenerbahce.

Q I heard that the team helped your girlfriend live in Turkey during the Summer split.
A Although many would think that having a partner while playing professional gaming would be a downside for my career, but I told my girlfriend that I have to focus on my gaming during the seasons, and that she may not be able to reach me during the season or during scrims. After the Winter split, we got engaged and we visited each other’s parents. I told the team about my girlfriend, and the team told her to come to Turkey and set up another seat for her in the gaming house. She also acted as a part of the team. She would prepare for snacks and help cleaning up the gaming house. The team officials back in Turkey even said that the team was able to win the championship because she came to Turkey.

Q How do you feel about staying abroad with your girlfriend?
A She learnt to understand the life of professional gamer after watching me practice and get stressed out throughout the season. She said that I was ‘really working hard’ for my career after watching me share active feedbacks after the scrim. And as she got to understand my life, she helped me recover from mental breakdowns. I think it was a great experience for my girlfriend to understand the world of professional gaming.


◆Longzhu Gaming, Frozen, and World Championship
Shortly after Frozen had conquered the Turkish league and came back to Korea, Longzhu Gaming, his former team, had also won the championship at LCK 2017 Summer. Longzhu claimed their first championship in their history, after beating SK Telecom T1, inarguably the best team in the world, by 3-1. We wondered how Frozen would have felt after watching Longzhu, a team with which Frozen had begun his career, win the championship.

Q You were able to watch Longzhu win the LCK as an audience. How did you feel?
A I can’t deny that I would have loved to be in that place, but I also thought that Longzhu was able to win the LCK because I was able to prevent the team’s relegation in the past. Longzhu Gaming, formerly the Incredible Miracle, played lots of promotion stages. They might not have been able to win the LCK if the team had been relegated before. I think I did contribute to the team’s glory by helping them remain in the LCK.

Q It’s interesting how your previous teammates from the earliest stages of Longzhu (Incredible Miracle, to be exact), such as ‘Flame’ Ho-jong Lee or ‘IgNar’ Dong-keun Lee have qualified for the Worlds too.
A I also heard that Flame’s Immortals and IgNar’s Misfits also made it to Worlds. ‘Crash’ Dong-woo Lee also made it to LPL, and ‘Fury’ Jin-yong Lee’s Suning Gaming is also performing quite well in China. The old members of Longzhu still get in touch with each other. I think it shows that Head Coach Dong-hoon Kang and Coach Seung-min Choi are both talented at recruiting good players. Although every member had enormous potential, it was always sad that we were not able to perform well together. I wonder what the reason was. I think it’s meaningful that we have the opportunity to compete against each other in Worlds in China.

Q How do you think the team would perform in the Worlds?
A I’m not sure how good the team would be. It’s not that our team has limitations, but rather that we have enormous potential and we might be able to perform way better than what we can expect now. To be honest, I am satisfied at the fact that we have won the league and made it to Worlds. Although I feel like throwing a party already, but my desire as a player have made myself wanting to show our competence and make it to higher stages.

Q Are you confident about the team’s competence in the international tournament?
A After playing against Russian teams at the Rift Rivals, I thought that we could be able to pass the Play-in Stage. One of the Russian teams created the biggest upset in the last Worlds and made it to the Quarterfinals, but at the Rift Rivals we were able to win the tournament without losing a single set. All other Turkish teams also performed well, and I think this represents the league’s competence. We also tend to play well in scrims against EU LCS teams. So, I think that our team will be able to gain momentum if we make it through the Play-in Stage and reach the Round of 16.

Q How do you plan to prepare for Worlds?
A After the interview, I plan to play solo ranked games to boost up my condition. The other Fenerbahce players are coming to Korea on the 7th, and that’s when we’re planning to begin preparing for team games. KeSPA has promised to help the team prepare for the bootcamp, and so we plan to practice in Korea until we go to China for Worlds.

Translated by ROXCrew.
*This translation was provided through a partnership with the ROXGAMING.