He Is That Guy

LVS player ‘Sensory’ set to return after a one-year hiatus
Jang Min-seok, Park Seok-hyeon, Ha Gi-baek, reporters (Interviewteam.peulpo.com)
(photo)
Sensory, preparing for the interview.
2021 is already drawing to a close.
After last appearing at the global event—Hiore World Championship—in September 2020, LVS jungler Sensory took a one-year break. Now he’s back.
Fans are curious where he’ll go from here—what team he’ll play for and what level of performance he’ll show.
Q. How did you spend your year off?
Sensory: Nothing dramatic changed. Compared to tournament prep I had more breathing room, but days still flew by with full participation in team activities and playing ranked.
Q. You’re slated to return starting with next year’s Spring Split. Will you continue under LVS?
Sensory: Yes. We’d been discussing an extension for a while. I figured renewing while taking a year off would be tough, but the head coach and assistants reached out first. I was grateful to accept.
Q. This season ‘Tenet’ filled the jungler slot. How will 2022 work?
Sensory: Tenet and I will alternate starts.
Q. We’ve heard you’re very close with Tenet—is that true?
Sensory: Other than my cousin, Coach Yoo Kyung-seok, he’s the closest to me. We’re the same age and similar in temperament, so it’s easy. We’ve been tight since he was on another team—about three years now.
Q. As a jungler, you’re known for mechanics and catching opponents off guard. Is your 2022 prep on track?
Sensory: In the 2021 season, buffs to tank items and to utility-type¹ supports pushed the jungle toward a herbivore meta². For 2022, damage-dealer changes should swing things back to aggression. That makes it an optimal season for me. I’ve got several heroes in prep—please look forward to the Spring Split starting in March.
Q. LVS fell just short to WFG in the Worlds final in the U.S. What’s the goal next year?
Sensory: As always, to win every tournament. With Tenet’s stable style and my aggressive style together, we can show an even more complete jungle game than this year.
(omitted)
Q. Counting the break, next year is your fourth as a pro. You started at twenty—what set you on that path?
Sensory: After watching an offline Hiore tournament at Busan BEXCO in the winter when I was eighteen, I started playing Hiore. The winning team’s jungler was insanely good. Not even a pro—just a regular player—but both mechanics and macro were outstanding. Before that I thought MOBAs weren’t my thing and never looked at them, but after that event I dove right in. I studied that jungler’s match records and replays and copied his macro, style, even item builds. My skill shot up fast.
Q. So without that event, Sensory might not be sitting here now.
Sensory: That’s very likely. Without that experience I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Hiore and would’ve quit quick. I actually met him recently at an acquaintance’s wedding, and he was a great person—really kind. He listened to me and even gave me his phone number. I was thrilled—I watched that tournament live and admired him for a long time. For him, I must’ve been unfamiliar and awkward, but he still put me first and looked out for me.
Q. Sounds like a deep connection. We hope it lasts. Any final words for fans anticipating your 2022 run?
Sensory: I’ll work to live up to the support you’ve given me. Thank you.
58comments58 comments58comments Latest｜Top
[best] why are the last two answers so long lolol how hardcore is he about that tournament winner lolol
└ lol everything else is like two lines max and that part alone is 3–4+ lines I’m dying
└ if the guy basically made him a pro gamer, of course he’s hyped after meeting him irl lol
[new] been waiting for Sensory’s return.. Tenet’s fine but still shaky tbh;
└ “fine” because people are being nice about a herbivore jungler—stop sending tanks jungle every time, what is this, an RPG?
└ he’s a clear pros/cons player—Sensory’s got weaknesses too but in Hiore you can’t ignore mechanics
└ if they rotate both it’s not bad
[new] team’s weight class is top tier, I’d say hmm
└ top tier? idk; gotta see them play first
└ a year off is huge—enough to fall off a cliff

[new] Sensory’s solo-queue rank is 37 rn ㅇㅇ
└ wtf 37? after a year off that’s high
└ he’s been queuing more lately; only 1–2 games a day till summer lol
└ yeah rank nosedived in summer—down past top 100.. looks restored
[new] so they just add Sensory and keep the roster? or still hush-hush?
└ support’s contract seems up; confirmed roster drops year-end
└ LVS probably wants “same + Sensory”—they got 2nd at Hold Cup
[new] Sensory’s cute lol
[new] offline Hiore tourney 5 years ago—is that the one? the Kim Se-hoon event?
└ sounds right, I remember going too
└ who won again—is there a vid left
└ that winning jungler was insanely good, yeah—but didn’t go pro
└ tons of cracked players don’t go pro
└ hobby vs job are different beasts
 
****
So Yoo Kyung-seok, the coach we met at the wedding, is his cousin.
I read through the comments under the interview and pressed my fingers to my brow.
“This is driving me nuts.”
Do I blame Chae Yu-jeong for blabbing, or the reporter for printing it verbatim.
Only after the article and the comments did it truly sink in that he’d admired me, genuinely, for years.
I organized my thoughts and called him. He picked up fast.
—…H-hello?
“Chae Yu-jeong.”
He sounded a little shaky at the sudden call.
“Can you talk now?”
—Of course. Obviously! Hyung, what’s up?
Through the hallway window, the night sky showed between clouds. The moon lit the dark corridor.
Come to think of it, I haven’t called anyone this late in a while. When I had a girlfriend, I used to.
Leaning against the wall in the dim hall, looking up at the moon, I felt oddly sentimental. With that mood clinging to me, I smiled faintly and asked, gently,
“Do you want to die?”
—…Huh?
“I asked if you’ve got a death wish.”
—Huh? Why, all of a sudden?
He panicked at my “threat.”
“What kind of crap did you go and say in that interview?”
—Ah……
He finally caught on and answered carefully.
—I… I didn’t say any names…
“Leaving out the name fixes it? You lay out the tournament details and think it’s fine as long as you skip the name?”
—I got carried away… but hyung.
“What.”
—It’s not something that needs hiding, is it? You did win because you played well. I’m sure plenty of people besides me watched and recognized it. You were really good… I even have the VOD. Want me to send it? If you watch it you’ll also think you played—
“Stop.”
I cut him off and sighed before the secondhand embarrassment killed me. I wasn’t furious enough to cuss him out, but I wasn’t thrilled either.
“Don’t do it again. What’s so great about winning some small tournament at nineteen that you have to broadcast it everywhere?”
—Still…
“I said don’t.”
I pinned it down again, and he swallowed the rest. I waited. His voice came back, small.
—I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.
“Mn.”
—Should I contact the outlet and ask them to remove that part?
“It went up earlier—whoever was going to see it already did. Forget it.”
—I’m sorry……
“Yeah. Just don’t repeat it.”
—……
“……”
Silence settled between us. [N O V E L I G H T] Nothing else to say—how do we end this.
“…That’s all I called about. Sorry for calling late. I’m hanging up.”
—Wait, hyung.
“What.”
—Two days from now is Friday. Uh…
Nerves bled through his voice.
—Are you busy?
“I do have class.”
—I need to be out that afternoon anyway. If you’re okay with it… I want to see you…
The more he spoke, the smaller he sounded.
I didn’t answer right away, and he rushed to fill it.
—If you’re busy I get it. I’m fine even with just an hour. I’m not trying to force you—it’s just how I feel. I want to see you, and it just so happens I’m out on Friday…
Friday. My class ends around six. If I push hard on the project until tomorrow, I can probably take Friday off.
And I need to check his schedule.
Last Sunday, Yu Chae said he was late logging in because he went home to his parents. The interview dropped three days later today—so he could’ve lied about that for interview schedules. I want to confirm properly.
“Okay. My class ends at six. We’ll meet after.”
—Huh? Really?
“You said meet. Go sit in a café near Korea University and wait. I’ll come there.”
If I meet him and press for details about the interview, I should get something more.
But even as my brain calmly laid out the plan, something in my chest tightened.
 
 
Notes
[1] Utility-type: characters built around utility—e.g., fast mobility, crowd control, ally-support tools.
[2] Meta: “Most Effective Tactic Available”—the prevailing strategies or trends in play at a given time.