The South Korean “Impact” Eon-young has been a professional player for 10 years in League of Legends. At just 18 he became a world champion and has won everything there is to win in LoL. For 8 years, the South Korean has been a mercenary and plays in the USA. Now he explains how he can remain a professional player for so long without burning out, like many others, and why he is afraid of retirement.
This is Impact:
- The South Korean Impact is one of the most experienced LoL professionals ever: He became world champion with SKT T1 in 2013, at the beginning of his career, alongside legendary players like Faker, Bengi, or Piglet. In 2014 and 2015 he was champion in South Korea twice, moved to the USA, and won the LCS four times here.
- Impact is a top laner. He is known for his gameplay with champions like Jayce, Shen, Jax, or Rumble.
- In his 10th year as a professional, Impact plays for a mid-tier team in the LCS, Evil Genius, and he still can. Just a few days ago, he set a new record in the LCS, dominating an opponent who was 7 years younger than him.
“League of Legends is my life”
How can he be a professional for so long? Many young men can only endure the tough life of a LoL professional for 5 or 6 years. The constant training, an unhealthy lifestyle, constant changes to LoL, and thus to the meta take their toll.
At 23, it’s often the end for the average LoL professional, even star players like Bjergsen retire at 24. Hardly any of the first world champions in LoL are still active. Some former star players had to end their careers early due to chronic injuries or mental health issues.
In an interview, Impact now shares how he avoids the “burnout” that many LoL professionals face after a few years.
“I have never really experienced something like burnout. I’m not sure, but my mindset goes towards League of Legends being my life. When I wake up, I think about the matchup I will have today. I like to think about LoL to develop new ideas. Other people play other games to distract themselves from their lives, but I just enjoy League of Legends.
A lot of people get burnout because they see LoL as work. If you see your everyday life as a job, then it’s easy to burn out. If you play for money or for job security, then you’ll also burn out quickly. But LoL is just my life. When I stop, I’m really scared: Because I have no idea what I would do then.”
“People always think: Just because I have money, I can quit”
Why is he afraid of retirement? At 26, after 10 years as a professional, most LoL players would look forward to retirement. Those who still want to be involved in LoL might become full-time streamers like Sneaky and Doublelift. Or they can become professional coaches like Bjergsen and Wolf. But for Impact, there’s only one option right now: keep playing.
Impact says:
“People always think that just because I have money, I can quit and have a good life, but I would be terribly bored and feel lost in life. I don’t want to take a break because it would just bore me.
I like competition. Losing feels bad, but winning makes me happy. That’s why I don’t get burnout because I know that all my work will give me the feeling of winning. It’s the best feeling ever.”
Everything bores Impact – except really good opponents in LoL
What stands out: In the interview, it seems that Impact is still marked by his time at SKT1 eight years ago. He says back then he had to fight for his playtime. Everything felt like a grind and an immense amount of pressure. Back then he realized that he needed an environment with less pressure to see how much fun LoL can actually be.
Today, Impact says, he enjoys everything: He has much more freedom and fun. Everything is fun for him: training is fun, solo queue is fun, even the terrible solo queue in the USA makes him happy.
Apparently, Impact’s time at T1 was so tough that everything since then feels like a vacation. He also seems to simply love LoL. Other games bore Impact. He finds it stupid to “just play LoL for fun.” Impact always wants to play ranked against the best players, he says. That gives him a thrill.
It seems that his profession fulfills him so much that he no longer perceives it as a profession but as his life.
Impact has had an exciting career. A world champion at 18, still a professional at 26. During this time he has made quite a bit of money and invested it:
