When you think about candidates for the most valuable
player, you will generally pick the player who has stood out the most or had a
couple of amazing performances. When you take a look at the Boston Uprising,
you’d likely select star DPS player Nam-Joo “Striker” Kwon as their MVP. He’s
stepped up and taken the team to another level during their recent 13 game
winning streak. If you were looking at players around the league and how
valuable they are to their teams, there’s a chance that you would look towards Hyun-Seok “Aaron” “Bischu” Kim, his ability to translate which enables Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek
the opportunity to be a difference maker from the main tank position. Finally
if I asked you about the most valuable chef’s in the league, you’re highly like
to mention chef Heidi of the Philadelphia Fusion. What if I was to tell you
that there is a player in the league, that happens to play for the Uprising and
can fill all three of these criteria? What if I told you that this player was the
forgotten chef Yeong-Jin “Gamsu” Noh!
Gamsu has already experienced being a professional esports player and living outside of his home country Korea his time playing as the main tank for Dignitas and Fnatic in League of Legends between 2014 - 2016, where he gained the title chef Gamsu for his ability and love of cooking. At the end of the 2016 EULCS season, Gamsu took some time away from League to evaluate his future in the game further, it was during this time that Gamsu picked up Overwatch and after finishing within the top 10 of season one. Gamsu decided that the time was right and made the switch from being a tank in League of Legends, to the main tank role in Overwatch.
With his on stage experience and leadership abilities, Gamsu
was picked up by Conbox for OGN’s APEX tournament. While Conbox weren’t the
strongest team in the competition, Gamsu gained recognition for his ability to
play both Reinhardt and Winston whilst leading his team from the front.
Conbox had a mixture of results in the three seasons he played for them,
missing the playoffs in season one, going through the relegation tournament and
surviving in season two and finally making the playoffs in season three. With
the prospect of the Overwatch league starting to be a certainty for Gamsu, he
decided not to partake in season four and was eventually signed to play for the
Boston Uprising.
At the time the league started, Boston were considered one
of the weaker teams in the league. President of Gaming Chris “Huk” Loranger and
Head Coach Da-Hee “Crusty” Park decided to go down the famed Moneyball route
when selecting their players and as they had chosen players from Korea, Europe
and North America that may not have been on every teams radar. The Uprising needed someone with the ability to speak both
English and Korean, but that could also lead by example. Gamsu very quickly
became that man for them.
The Uprising started stage one slowly, Gamsu had to start
shot calling in both languages so that everyone was on the same page, as the
starting line-up was split down the middle with three Korean players and three
English speaking players (one of each in each spot). With the difficulty
communicating clear to see the team would focus purely on dive compositions
early on and this led to surprise win verses London with Striker and Gamsu forming
a formidable Tracer/Tank combination. While they finished 6-6 for the stage
Boston improved and Gamsu was leading from the front, being the leader of the
team that the Uprising hoped for but also being the reliable performer that
most had known him to become.
Stage two was very much the same as stage one, after a slow
start and Gamsu needing to return home for a week. The Uprising started to show
more developed strategies and team compositions, quickly being touted as one of
the better counter dive teams in the league. While the results were still up and
down at times, the performances were showing signs of improving and Boston
ended stage two on a two game winning streak. Entering into stage three
resulted in the situation around Dreamkazper and Mistakes coming in as a
supportive DPS. While this was going on around them, Gamsu and fellow tank line
member Lucas “NotE” Meissner seemed to have worked out their kinks and both
started leading with a renewed focus and confidence that hadn’t previously been
on show. Causing their opposition to focus on them rather their teammates,
which has resulted in the current strong performance of stage three.
Gamsu and his fellow Korean players seemed relieved that the
rumored trade to the Valiant hadn’t happened and went on a tear, they showed a
synergy as a team, positional partnerships and in their individual play that
very few other teams have matched since. Boston have become the 2nd
team in the league to beat every opposing team they’ve face and the first team
to win ten straight games. Gamsu as team captain has managed to help turn
around this once silent and inconsistent team to a juggernaut that are able to
outlast any other team when it comes to game 5 victories (with four stage three
alone) and come into the stage three playoffs as the team that few want to
face.
So while recently Fissure stated that “Bischu is going to be the most valuable player when it comes to end of
season contract negotiations, based on the performance of himself and the
results of his team. I would disagree with Fissure and state that it is Gamsu
not Bischu who is an underrated all star player that any team would want,
especially those who want to run a hybrid Korean/English speaking team.
(Picture from Overwatch Wire)
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