JJonak

JJonak
Bang Sung-hyeon
JJonak meditating, 2018
Born 1999/2000 (age 18–19)[1]
Nationality Korean
Current team New York Excelsior
Role Support
League Overwatch League
Games Overwatch
Professional career
2018–present New York Excelsior
2018 Team South Korea

Bang "JJonak" Sung-hyeon (JO-nak) is a professional Overwatch player for the New York Excelsior best known for his nontraditional use of the Zenyatta support character. He was named most valuable player of the league's first season.

Early life

Bang "JJonak" Sung-hyeon was raised in Seoul, South Korea. He recalled having a good relationship with his parents and wanting to pursue a professional gaming career from a young age. He pursued first-person shooter and fighting video games rather than schoolwork. While in high school, JJonak discovered Overwatch, the game which he would later play professionally, at a PC Bang. JJonak's name is based on the Korean phrase "jjomullak najki", which translates to "fumbling octopus". He modeled himself on professional Overwatch player Je-hong "Ryujehong" Ryu, by studying his playstyle, game settings, and choice of computing peripherals.[1]

Career

External video
JJonak's New York Excelsior introduction

JJonak professionally debuted with New York Excelsior in January 2018.[lower-alpha 1] The team found massive success, sitting at the no. 1 seed for most of the season. JJonak quickly became known for his skill with the hero Zenyatta, a hero in the support role who JJonak adopted a unique, very aggressive playstyle for often dealing as much damage on the hero as enemy damage players. Within two months, Kotaku described JJonak's play as the most valuable on the top-ranked team, with his Zenyatta skill having surpassed that of his role model Ryujehong.[1] JJonak's Zenyatta playstyle was inimitable by other teams in the league's first season.[4]

While Zenyatta traditionally plays a support role on Overwatch teams, primarily healing and boosting allies and secondarily dealing damage, JJonak is known for using the character's high damage output. Zenyatta's two main abilities are orbs of harmony and discord, which can be assigned to other players to heal teammates and increase a damage multiplier on enemies, respectively. JJonak's skill with Zenyatta descends from his ability to predict enemy movements, aim with precision, and take risky moves, which altogether let him make long-distance sniper and trick shots better expected of players in damage-focused rather than support roles. For this reason, he often sidelines his team healing duties to prioritize damage. Support roles, such as those filled by Zenyatta, traditionally accompany a high-damage role as a bodyguard, but with JJonak's high-damage play, the New York Excelsior's other support player often would escort and boost JJonak. This nontraditional strategy contributed to the New York Excelsior's standout debut standings[1] and the two support players' receiving the highest season rankings.[5]

JJonak was named the most valuable player of the league's first season by an extremely large margin, earning twice as many votes as the next closest player, Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek of the LA Gladiators.[6]

JJonak competed on the Atlantic Division's starting roster in the Overwatch League All-Star Weekend.

Currently he is competing for Team South Korea in the Overwatch World Cup.[7] The team placed #1 seed in their qualifier round, winning every game. They competed against Russia, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, and Chinese Taipei. They wil be playing in the quarterfinals at BlizzCon in Los Angeles against Finland and six other teams yet to be determined in November 2018.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ JJonak had previously signed with LW Blue in 2017, but in preparation to join the Overwatch League, where the team would compose most of New York Excelsior's roster, LW Blue did not compete professionally.[2] He also could not compete in the league's pre-season due to its minimum age cutoff.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 D'Anastasio, Cecilia (March 20, 2018). "An Overwatch Pro Is Turning The Game's Zen Monk Into A Vicious Killer". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  2. ↑ Carpenter, Nicole (March 4, 2018). "NYXL's JJoNak: 'My role model is Seoul Dynasty's ryujehong'". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Five questions heading into the Overwatch League debut". ESPN.com. January 9, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  4. ↑ Rand, Emily (May 29, 2018). "NYXL's WizardHyeong: 'I don't really care about this stage, personally.'". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Overwatch League by the numbers: the untouchable NYXL". ESPN.com. May 29, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  6. ↑ Erzberger, Tyler (July 25, 2018). "OWL sendoffs: Goodbye New York and L.A." ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  7. ↑ Baker, Harry (July 3, 2018). "South Korea announce their 2018 Overwatch World Cup roster". Overwatch Wire. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  8. ↑ "South Korea and Finland qualify for World Cup Finals at BlizzCon". Overwatch Wire. 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2018-08-27.

Further reading

  • Allen, Eric Van (June 5, 2018). "How The New York Excelsior Took Over The Overwatch League". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  • Castello, Jay (July 31, 2018). "What makes an Overwatch MVP?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  • Erzberger, Tyler (July 12, 2018). "Overwatch League MVP JJoNak: 'So, [it's] 30 percent hard work, 70 percent talent'". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  • Grayson, Nathan (July 12, 2018). "Overwatch League's First-Ever MVP Illustrates Its Support Problem". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  • "OWL by the numbers: NYXL's troubles adapting to new meta". ESPN.com. July 21, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
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