[NDG.Stitch]

Interview with Brian "pokerface" Yoon

(xGKingPokerface on the right hand side)

Hi Pokerface! First things first, I'd like to congratulate you on behalf of your former clan, Team Supreme and the rest of SEA on making Team Xeria Gaming, noticeably the top team of SEA at the moment! For those who don't know who you are, would you mind giving a brief introduction about yourself?

Hey there, my name's Brian Yoon (aka pokerface) and I'm a high school student trying to play Starcraft II competitively.

What games have you played before Starcraft 2?

I played mostly RTS games but not at a competitive level as I did in Starcraft II. They're mainly blizzard games such as Brood War and Warcraft III. I also played a bit of Dota as well.

Why in the end did you choose to stick with Starcraft 2?

Because I saw potential in Starcraft II as a game that can represent e-sports as a whole, and see it as an opportunity to make a living through all these tournaments that the community has spent time to allow players such as myself to really shine and receive some money as well.

Named as one of the possible up and coming players of SEA, you have grown exceptionally well starting from Season 4 on Ladder and in numerous competitions. What do you think lead you to your success?

Basically a lot of practice in ladder and with friends/teammates. However as a consequence, I have faltered slightly in my studies as a result while not accomplishing nearly as much as I would have hoped. I will try to improve more in the future while at the same time keeping up with my studies.

Haha, yeah, studies are still really important! What were some challenges that you had to face besides academics as you were improving in Starcraft? Were there any times where you wanted to give up?

As of late, my parents have become increasingly mad and dissapointed at me for playing more Starcraft instead of studying. One time, while I was playing in one of the qualifiers for IEM Kiev, I was playing way over the time my parents expected me to finish. As a result, my mother came to me and slapped me in the face multiple times during the final game. It hurt like hell but I never thought about giving up as my passion for Starcraft is unbreakable.

Wow... It must be really hard to keep up with this much. I'm sure after hearing that, none of us can ever doubt your passion for SC2! On the other hand, before playing Zerg, you played Random. Many would ask, why did you stick with Zerg?

At first I played zerg, but somewhere along the line I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could win a tournament playing random?" So I decided to play random for a bit, but never achieved anything substantial in tournaments. The real icing in the cake was when I was playing a PvP in one of the Masters Cup and lost against a dt rush against a no-name player while it was being casted live. I was so humiliated that I decided to switch back to zerg lol. However, I did gain some information about the other races, which help me understand some timings alot better as a result.

Before joining Xeria, you had to take on Xeria Gaming’s experienced players such as MaFia and Jazbas in a lot of tournaments. You did quite an amazing job against them and proved to be able to be at their calibre as them at City Hunter and the Masters Cup, what do you think gave you that confidence at that time?

To be honest, I wasn't that confident against them at the time. My games against Light and iaguz ended up with me winning in a close set 2-1, so its not like I had an easy time against them. All I did was to try my best and it worked out in the end. It was unfortunate though that I couldn't finish my bo3 with jazbas on the masters cup on that day as I had to rush to the train station to catch the last train to get back home.

Haha, that's really cool! It shows that trying our best at times where we don't have much confidence is the best way to find our own strengths! Were you surprised when you were invited to join Team Xeria Gaming?


Yes, I was very surprised when Benji talked to me all of a sudden about forming a xeria b-team, and that he wanted me to be part of it. I was excited as it was an oppurtunity for me to make myself more known and perhaps travel around and participate in major tournaments which I could not have entered if I hadn't got the support of an amazing team. I also hope that I do well in winning games for xeria gaming in team leagues in the future.

Speaking of Team League's, the upcoming SEACL will be one of your first experiences of playing with your new teamates in a Team-based competition. What are your thoughts about this tournament? Are you looking forward to it yourself?

First of all, I'd like to thank Nirvana and everyone who helped making this clan league possible despite some of the negative influences generated by some people from the community. I am looking forward to this event and hope that we can win this clan league as a new and upcoming team, especially with such a strong line-up.

Thank you for your input on the SEACL! Do you have any short-term goals and long-term goals that you might want to share with us?

For short term, win as much as I can. As for the longer term, I hope to one day be able to get into a situation where I can focus on Starcraft II fully and travel abroad to major foreign tournaments.

We all hope to see you focus fully on Starcraft 2 as well Brian! Lastly, is there anyone you want to give a shoutout to in this interview?

Sure, shoutout to everyone in SPR, friends, Benji for forming a great team, Chris for being awesome and of course to all the Xeria members, Mafia, iaguz, JazBas, Light, Bielsko and Myuu.

Thank you for the time to answer these questions Brian! Once again, I'd like to say a big congratulations on making Xeria! I hope everyone enjoys reading more about you just as much as I do.

Thanks ^^

Interviewed by Stitch

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	Awesome
	Eddie:
	Dox:	Wonderful
	TAEdgE:
	Nemo:	Wonderful, thanks !

[ROOTPetraeus]

Sick interview Pokerface fighting!

[MooZfY]

Popopppppopopo poker face

[nGenLight]

Yo man,

I know we had abit of a runin before, but I must say that overall I'm very pleased with you joining xG, especially with me beinng completely inactive and Tim once again flirting with the douchebaggery of the internet (WoW) facing the upcoming SEACL.

Judging by this interview (especially the part about your mother slapping you) and my own impressions about your game. I really respect your work ethic and must say I can relate to spending way too much time on SCII and dissappointing someone. Although this is a game that we know and love, don't forget the importance of keeping everything in real life neat and straight before mass-indulding in StarCraft!

I sincerely welcome you to the team, xGKingPokerF - However, now that you are on xG, I am expecting a significant rise in personality from you at LANs, this is something that Xeria members have never traditionally lacked, let's do it babe!

PS. I'ma playing a few games so I won't be a total deadweight for the SEACL, lets get some practice games in like the good old days.

Quick Comments

	TAEdgE:	fap
	NDG.Stitch:
	asdfSchnitzel:	Light playing in SEACL!??!? This s**t just got real! =D
	Fadey:

[TAEdgE]

Congrats and Good luck PF!

[mOOnGLaDe]

how come pokerface is b team? hes good!

Quick Comments

	TAEdgE:
	NvJazBas:	I know!! and also Bielsko and Myuu lol

[FaDeBadger]

dem asian parents o.O

[Stallion]

tha no name with the dt rush was cruxMyth on tda and to this date im still not sure how it worked after you saw 2 gas >< overall glad you joined xGking though working hard and passion are what it takes and you obviously have that gl with the future.

Quick Comments

	cruxBsK:	What a Boss Myth was taking out pokerface
	Nemo:	Now he has a name :)

[Roz]

all i can say is even though you may think that it's bad that you can't play this game full time, when you look back 10 years from now, u'll realize how good it actually was =p

[AxSGRiM]

Nice interview, pokerface definitely is the #1 Up and coming Zerg on SEA.

[NvJazBas]

Welcome Pokerface ^^

As a fellow Korean in same team I'm really excited for you to be in our team and really looking forward to meet you in person and maybe even travel as a team to foreign events if ever we get a chance to!

I just want to say something thats almost repeating what Roz said! Althought I respect deeply to your passion for this game, "pro-gaming" is a risky job and I reccomend you should always put your study first especially at high school age. The thing is, parents are almost always right..lol sad thing to admit. I'm not saying you should re think about doing gaming for living, just saying you should try to balance it out with study/sports and gaming or other things you like!
Just a comment from an "older" Korean LOL

Anyways, I'm really excited that you joined our team, looking forward to praciticing with you and learning some of your mindgames or builds that I found are really really strong of you!

[NDG.Stitch]

Wise words from Hyung.

(as the article writer it feels rude to put my opinion)

But yeah Poker, I'm a highschool student as well, and I guess in Hong Kong, it's even more competitive in terms of grades compared to Australia, and bro, I think academics are way important. It's good to have a balance between academics and gaming, but it'll be really hard. Especially with such a stressful game like Starcraft. But I wish you the best in trying to strike that balance, remember to keep up a social life though!

[alwaysdryToT]

porkface and pokerface lol