Sights on Spring: Pobelter

It’s been four months since Eugene “Pobelter” Park’s 21st birthday. He’s barely old enough to buy alcohol in the United States, yet a storied career spans a third of his lifetime. While traditional sports athletes often take several years to develop into their prime, the same time could an entire cycle of League of Legends stardom.

Pobelter finds this mismatch interesting. Almost like “dog-age”, his career falls on a timeline relative to esports rather than reality. “I feel old. I always joke that I’m esports middle-aged,” he says, “I mean I’m still relatively young compared to everyone so that makes everyone else feel old. So I kind of like doing that.”

In comparison to his fellow teammates, Pobelter is easily the baby. At 26 years old, Jake “Xmithie” Puchero could practically be his grandfather—in esports years. What’s unique to Pobelter is the disproportion between his youth and his experience.

Though he finds himself the youngest player on his team, his history rivals even AD Carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s famously long career. “I’ve been playing this game since it came out, so I have a lot of experience,” he says reflecting on his start as a young boy, “I kind of grew up along with the scene.”



At the same time that Pobelter reached a professional level of play, he was juggling parental expectations and AP high school classes. “I was trying to do well in high school so I could get into a good college while still playing a lot of League, because one: it was really fun, and two: I was really good at it.”

“After I graduated, I made a choice,” Pobelter retraces, “go straight away to College, or head into the LCS. Because I had an offer from Evil Geniuses at the time, I chose the latter and that’s why I’m here.”

On such a non-traditional path, Pobelter received a measured level of support from his parents. “They were supportive of it but they kind of wanted it to be a short-term thing,” he remembers. Little did they know their son was embarking on a now four year journey that would change his life forever.

Looking back, Pobelter wishes he’d sought more balance between school and League given his current path. “The number one thing I would tell fifteen year old me is to take less stressful classes if I wasn’t going to go to College right away anyways,” he says with a laugh, “definitely don’t need to take an SAT Summer course.”

A lesson on time management, Pobelter’s early years were a burnout nightmare. “I’d wake up at 6:00 and go to school, get home at 3:30 or close to 4:00 cause I went to school kinda far away from my house,” he rebuilds a day in the life of young POB, “and then I’d just play League, have practice with my team or whatever until 10:00. I’d have to squeeze in my homework at school during downtime or between scrim blocks.”

Pobelter often finds this workload underestimated by today’s aspiring competitors. “There’s always people who will ask, ‘is it viable for me to drop out of school’ or whatever,” he says on advice for the next generation of hungry solo queuers, “it’s good to see someone who has that aspiration and that goal but it’s not so easy as that. Even being Challenger is the very baseline of the work to becoming an LCS pro.”

“It’s not even that you’re there if you’re challenger. Especially in NA being Challenger is very different from being a player that’s gonna exede competitively,” he continues, leaving no dream uncrushed. Pobelter understands that the dream is achievable, but it takes an intense amount of work to get there.

POB 2018

The Spring Split is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in recent history. As new orgs fill out the ten permanent slots in the now franchised NA LCS, the talent pool is being stuffed to the brim. Not only have imports continued to book their flights to the States, but Academy League promises more hometown skill will rise to the main stage.

“I think we’ll be quite strong. It’s always hard to count out TSM and C9,” Pobelter claims, listing his top three picks for the start of the new season, “but early season always has a way of surprising people. Maybe we or some other team that people perceive to be strong won’t get out on the right foot, but that doesn’t mean that later down the line problems won’t be fixed by playoffs.”

This year, Pobelter’s new team is hardly new at all. With three of five former IMT members returning to the rift alongside him, he finds some familiarity in the usually uncharted path of a new roster. Through Doublelift—a former teammate during Pobelter’s North American victory on CLG—he realizes how much has changed in just two years.

He thinks back to a simpler time when the two played together, recalling, “the game was much less complex—I mean, the game was the same but teams were at a much lower level so there wasn’t as much thinking about certain things you have to do.” “Now it’s been two years since then and I’ve learned a lot on Immortals and he’s learned a lot in his time on TSM,” he continues, “we’re a lot more vocal now and contribute more, so it’s a lot different from our time on CLG.”

First on the plate for Team Liquid this season is none other than Doublelift’s former team TSM. While his AD Carry already smells blood in the water, Pobelter is taking things a little more slowly. He states simply, “It should be a fun match. I have no idea how strong TSM is and I’m sure TSM doesn’t know how strong we are. Either team can win especially because it’s a best of one format.”

Saturday is just another day of work for Pobelter, regardless of the narrative. “I’d expect a fun, entertaining, and challenging game for both teams and also the viewers.”

	Pobelter League of Legends