One day I happened to see a photograph of the feet of the ballerina Kang Soojin. I was astonished by her feet that expressed such fluent beauty on the stage. The hardened skin of her toes was an strange sight. She had been dancing again and again until her toes were in that condition. Though her toes swelled and bled, she must have endured the pain and practiced again. The tedious repetitions, only through the bloody repetitions was she able to become a world-class ballerina.

I looked at my hands. I was embarrassed by my fingers that looked so comfortable. ‘Yeah, until my fingers cannot move, until I cannot move my wrist, I will practice.’ They said that when the French artist Renoir could no longer move his fingers, he strapped the brush to his hand and continued to draw. I sat again in front of the computer. I made up my mind to practice until my fingers became unsightly.

As our team approached the MBCGame Team League in the fall of 2003, we were at a critical moment. As the renewal contract with Orion failed, our team needed a new sponsor. We had to definitely win. Luckily, our team was able to enter the finals and all that was left was to bring back the championship trophy. The coach assigned each player a number of games, and we began to practice. Whether it was because my results were poor or whether he thought I was lazy, he assigned me the most number of games. It was a number that I could not fulfill within a day. But as a captain, if I could not follow through in this difficult situation, there was no way that my juniors would follow.

I began to practice. After 12 hours passed, my entire body began to grow stiff. After 20 hours passed, my mind was in a daze and sleep pressed in on me. After 24 hours passed, I could not move my fingers. I was only mechanically moving my fingers and I could not sense anything. It was after 30 hours that I fulfilled the number of games that my coach assigned me. I had not slept and had been practicing for 30 hours. My wrists could move no longer. And like that, I collapsed and fell into a deep sleep.

In the end, we were able to win. It was the result of the enormous number of hours that we had practiced, not just myself.

Every now and then, there are those that desire to become professional gamers because they like games. I ask that they would think about it one more time. I would suggest that they do not make what they like into a job. Of course, I chose because I liked games. But there were just as many things that I had to give up.

There comes a moment when a progamer must play, even when he does not want to. If I liked games just as a hobby, I would not have been able to endure the life of a progamer. Gaming is everything to a professional gamer. It is a hobby as well as a duty. Gaming for a progamer is like laboring. When they play, they must play games, and when they rest, they must play games. And if they are a part of a team, they cannot freely go outside. They must be prepared to give up a certain portion of their personal life. There were many times when I wanted to watch movies, go out for a drink, and spend a comfortable time like other friends of my age. I am a person too, and games are not all that is fun in the world.

But if one is a progamer, the most fun thing in the world must be games, and the only thing that is fun must be games. If one cannot endure that, then there will be a day when he is filled with thoughts of wanting to play, with ‘But I want to do this…I want to do that…’ In the end, he will not want to play games and will not be able to practice properly. There will be a moment of realization that he cannot hold on to both horses that are running in the same direction. I also wanted to play and hold onto the seat of the ‘Emperor.’ I had been forgetting that I could not have both. I had to pick one side. But if I have to choose, my answer is certain. The life as a professional gamer, that is my everything.

The reason for falling into a slump is careless practice. The way to get out of a slump is to practice. I started again from the beginning. I must return to the time when I played with my own style, and when I determined the victory through strategies. And the strategies are a product of practicing more than anyone else. The key to success is to persevere through practice.

The person that looks for a shortcut is not a true professional. There is no shortcut to becoming the greatest progamer.