Rookie says with a laugh: He likes all mid laners who made it far in 2020. They all spoke very kindly about him.
Hard work to overcome age
This was the crisis: Rookie says his worst time was in summer 2019. His father was sick and he returned to Korea.
At that time, he could no longer train as hard as usual and that’s when Rookie immediately felt his age. He could no longer keep up with the young players. He had neither the time nor the mindset to train hard. As a result, he felt completely uncomfortable in his head when he played again.
The only way for Rookie to counterbalance this is: to train even harder and work on himself. Earlier, at 16 or 17, he was the youngest in the team, now he is the oldest. He has to lead, both outside and inside the game, so he works even harder.
He reflects on what went well and what can be improved. Chinese fans often said, “Rookie’s performance is not declining” – and this hard training and constant work on himself is the reason for that.
For Rookie, the aging curve that he feels is one of the reasons why he trains so hard.
As motivation, he takes his sick father. Rookie says: His father would be thrilled that Rookie is a pro gamer and loves to see him win. Therefore, Rookie believes it would relax his father to see how Rookie plays and wins. And that his father feels relaxed and comfortable is good for his health.
Rookie often thinks of his sick father and his well-being when he works hard.
In a very similar vein as Rookie, his successor as world champion: Doinb, who is also already 23, has thought about retirement and feels the pressure from the young generation that is pushing in.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
The world champion explains why the USA is so bad at LoL
Rookie says with a laugh: He likes all mid laners who made it far in 2020. They all spoke very kindly about him.
Hard work to overcome age
This was the crisis: Rookie says his worst time was in summer 2019. His father was sick and he returned to Korea.
At that time, he could no longer train as hard as usual and that’s when Rookie immediately felt his age. He could no longer keep up with the young players. He had neither the time nor the mindset to train hard. As a result, he felt completely uncomfortable in his head when he played again.
The only way for Rookie to counterbalance this is: to train even harder and work on himself. Earlier, at 16 or 17, he was the youngest in the team, now he is the oldest. He has to lead, both outside and inside the game, so he works even harder.
He reflects on what went well and what can be improved. Chinese fans often said, “Rookie’s performance is not declining” – and this hard training and constant work on himself is the reason for that.
For Rookie, the aging curve that he feels is one of the reasons why he trains so hard.
As motivation, he takes his sick father. Rookie says: His father would be thrilled that Rookie is a pro gamer and loves to see him win. Therefore, Rookie believes it would relax his father to see how Rookie plays and wins. And that his father feels relaxed and comfortable is good for his health.
Rookie often thinks of his sick father and his well-being when he works hard.
In a very similar vein as Rookie, his successor as world champion: Doinb, who is also already 23, has thought about retirement and feels the pressure from the young generation that is pushing in.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
The world champion explains why the USA is so bad at LoL
Rookie says with a laugh: He likes all mid laners who made it far in 2020. They all spoke very kindly about him.
Hard work to overcome age
This was the crisis: Rookie says his worst time was in summer 2019. His father was sick and he returned to Korea.
At that time, he could no longer train as hard as usual and that’s when Rookie immediately felt his age. He could no longer keep up with the young players. He had neither the time nor the mindset to train hard. As a result, he felt completely uncomfortable in his head when he played again.
The only way for Rookie to counterbalance this is: to train even harder and work on himself. Earlier, at 16 or 17, he was the youngest in the team, now he is the oldest. He has to lead, both outside and inside the game, so he works even harder.
He reflects on what went well and what can be improved. Chinese fans often said, “Rookie’s performance is not declining” – and this hard training and constant work on himself is the reason for that.
For Rookie, the aging curve that he feels is one of the reasons why he trains so hard.
As motivation, he takes his sick father. Rookie says: His father would be thrilled that Rookie is a pro gamer and loves to see him win. Therefore, Rookie believes it would relax his father to see how Rookie plays and wins. And that his father feels relaxed and comfortable is good for his health.
Rookie often thinks of his sick father and his well-being when he works hard.
In a very similar vein as Rookie, his successor as world champion: Doinb, who is also already 23, has thought about retirement and feels the pressure from the young generation that is pushing in.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
The world champion explains why the USA is so bad at LoL
The mid laner Song “Rookie” Eu-jin (23) is considered one of the best mid laners of all time in League of Legends. In 2018, he became the world champion in LoL with Invictus Gaming. In an interview, he now explains how difficult it is to fight against the aging curve in LoL and keep up with the “young players”.
This is Rookie: Like many talented mid laners, Rookie was immediately compared to the legendary LoL player, Faker.
While the Danish player Caps is seen as the “Baby Faker”, Rookie quickly earned the nickname “Faker Junior” because of his strong mechanics and extensive champion pool.
Rookie only played for a year in his home country of South Korea and moved to China in 2014, to Invictus Gaming. He still plays there today, six years later.
At IG, he celebrated his greatest success in 2018: He dominated the Worlds 2018:
- At the LoL World Championships 2018, all teams from Korea and 2 of the 3 teams from China looked surprisingly weak. The first generation of LoL superstars like Faker or Uzi could no longer dominate like in previous years.
- But Invictus Gaming was excellent with the two Koreans The Shy (Top Lane) and Rookie (Mid Lane). ADC Jackey Love (China) also provided highlights in abundance.
However, from the success, no dynasty emerged:
- In 2019, Invictus Gaming reached the semifinals of the Worlds, where they had to bow out in a fantastic series to the later world champion FunPlus Phoenix.
- In 2020, IG could not even qualify for the Worlds. Just like many other favorites, the COVID year 2020 was literally and figuratively a plague year for Invictus Gaming.
Rookie has not yet found a way to counterbalance age
This is what Rookie says about age: In an interview with Inven , Rookie now talks about his age and his career:
“Esports is a sport that is played with the hands and the brain, one does not use the whole body like in conventional sports. Although the brain can develop over the years, I feel that the hands slow down as we age.
I have not yet found a way to change that, even though I am working hard on it. In traditional sports, you can train your muscles through constant training to compensate for it. Just look at Ronaldo (35) or Messi (33) – they still play well. That is the difference.
If you look back at Starcraft, most professional players stopped because their playing strength declined with age. There are exceptions, of course, but I believe that there are aging curves for pro gamers. I am doing my best to overcome the aging curve.”
A generational change in LoL is necessary and inevitable
This is what he says about retirement: At the Worlds 2020, none of the 4 mid laners in the semifinals was older than 20. The young ones are pushing forward. Rookie sees this as important for LoL so that League of Legends remains successful, evolves, and everyone receives better conditions. Because this way, professionals could continue to work in the scene as coaches.
The young players must enter the league and catch up with those who were good before them to keep the game fresh and lively. This would create a scene where everyone is better off.
Rookie says: For an individual player, it may be regrettable when he has to retire, but in the long run, a generational change is inevitable and necessary.
He himself wants to retire when he feels that he is dragging his teammates down. However, he has never felt that way and wants to do his best to keep it that way and work hard for it.
This is how Rookie sees the new players: At the World Championship, there were 3 mid laners from Asia in the semifinals, and Rookie has an opinion about them:
- Actually, knight from Top Esports was seen as the favorite. But Rookie says the pressure seems to have become too much for him. Knight did not feel comfortable: Usually, knight plays creatively and “freestyle” as is common in the LPL, but at the Worlds he played conservatively. Rookie is still proud of him: That is a growth process.
- Angel (Suning) showed progress during the tournament.
- Showmaker (from world champion DAMWON Gaming) is a great player and will remain one.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
The world champion explains why the USA is so bad at LoL
Rookie says with a laugh: He likes all mid laners who made it far in 2020. They all spoke very kindly about him.
Hard work to overcome age
This was the crisis: Rookie says his worst time was in summer 2019. His father was sick and he returned to Korea.
At that time, he could no longer train as hard as usual and that’s when Rookie immediately felt his age. He could no longer keep up with the young players. He had neither the time nor the mindset to train hard. As a result, he felt completely uncomfortable in his head when he played again.
The only way for Rookie to counterbalance this is: to train even harder and work on himself. Earlier, at 16 or 17, he was the youngest in the team, now he is the oldest. He has to lead, both outside and inside the game, so he works even harder.
He reflects on what went well and what can be improved. Chinese fans often said, “Rookie’s performance is not declining” – and this hard training and constant work on himself is the reason for that.
For Rookie, the aging curve that he feels is one of the reasons why he trains so hard.
As motivation, he takes his sick father. Rookie says: His father would be thrilled that Rookie is a pro gamer and loves to see him win. Therefore, Rookie believes it would relax his father to see how Rookie plays and wins. And that his father feels relaxed and comfortable is good for his health.
Rookie often thinks of his sick father and his well-being when he works hard.
In a very similar vein as Rookie, his successor as world champion: Doinb, who is also already 23, has thought about retirement and feels the pressure from the young generation that is pushing in.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
The world champion explains why the USA is so bad at LoL
Rookie says with a laugh: He likes all mid laners who made it far in 2020. They all spoke very kindly about him.
Hard work to overcome age
This was the crisis: Rookie says his worst time was in summer 2019. His father was sick and he returned to Korea.
At that time, he could no longer train as hard as usual and that’s when Rookie immediately felt his age. He could no longer keep up with the young players. He had neither the time nor the mindset to train hard. As a result, he felt completely uncomfortable in his head when he played again.
The only way for Rookie to counterbalance this is: to train even harder and work on himself. Earlier, at 16 or 17, he was the youngest in the team, now he is the oldest. He has to lead, both outside and inside the game, so he works even harder.
He reflects on what went well and what can be improved. Chinese fans often said, “Rookie’s performance is not declining” – and this hard training and constant work on himself is the reason for that.
For Rookie, the aging curve that he feels is one of the reasons why he trains so hard.
As motivation, he takes his sick father. Rookie says: His father would be thrilled that Rookie is a pro gamer and loves to see him win. Therefore, Rookie believes it would relax his father to see how Rookie plays and wins. And that his father feels relaxed and comfortable is good for his health.
Rookie often thinks of his sick father and his well-being when he works hard.
In a very similar vein as Rookie, his successor as world champion: Doinb, who is also already 23, has thought about retirement and feels the pressure from the young generation that is pushing in.
He believes age is simply crucial in LoL and sees it as a huge problem for US players:
