A Deep Analysis On Why Koreans Are So Successful

I've done about thirty minutes of procrastinated research, procrastinated research meaning I started then stopped, said I'd do it later, did some more later, stopped, did more later, so on so forth, which gave me a lot of time to think about everything they do in comparison to what we do, and I think I've found a solid reason Koreans are more successful than any other country at video games. All sources are linked at the bottom of the thread.

The first set of research I did was watch a game played by (the real) SKT T1 Faker, where he played as Ahri vs Katarina in 835 LP Korean Challenger on his account, "Hide on bush". I was dumbfounded, really, as I saw a few things that definitely would not slide in any ranking in North America. First of all, he was playing severely aggressive with no defensive runes besides HPL seals against a Katarina. I realized, while watching, in NA, the Katarina would counter-aggress, as she does a lot of burst damage, and if she plays right can win the trades, especially the way Faker was positioning himself. This Katarina just took every shit from him. Everything. Then later on, Faker got ganked by the enemy Jarvan, and I noticed he had no trinket on the map, pushing to his tower without vision with no defensive runes, no flash, and no ult. As well, he ran a completely uncanny direction for an escape route. So I continued thinking to myself why he kept making these mistakes, and why the Katarina made some similar mistakes.

Now look back a few months ago at LCS and Worlds. Actually, for the first one, go back to last year when C9 first joined LCS, all the way through the year. They'd always let themselves lose the first few minutes of the game. They'd always suck early game, but then completely dominate everyone late game. Now, look at LMQ vs Crs, LMQ let Crs completely dumpster on them the first two games, then came back the next 3 games winning 3rd place title of NA. I was confused as to why they were doing this, and of course uneducated me back then who was a huge LMQ fan (I seriously already knew LMQ was trolling them) thought to myself, "They must want to put on a show for the viewers of LCS. I mean, everyone's always rooting for all 5 games." It wasn't that as much as it was something I found out later on. Now, look at Worlds. I forgot which shoutcaster said it, but they always pointed out that Samsung White would always try to end the game as early as possible. #20MinutesTheDream.

Now that we have all this analysis, let's take this into detail. If you watch gbay99, you've probably already ran across one of his popular videos, "The Difference Between You and Pro League of Legends Players". In this video, he states, "The reason you can't see how impressive it is to play this game at a high level outside of certain instances like crazy madlife plays [how does he hit every single one?] is because a huge chunk of this game is mental." He proceeds to talk about how the biggest difference between high level players and low level players, "...is how much stuff they can keep track of..." but I, personally, know that it's way more than this. In another one of gbay99's videos, he talks about the amygdala in your brain changes your thought process of the game into an emotional state rather than a logical state, where your brain goes into a fight or flight situation, but doesn't have the knowledge to know how to react when you're losing. This also goes into way further detail, as it can do the opposite effect. If you're winning by a landslide, or you get a slight lead, it boosts your ego, which makes your brain's amygdala play in a more cocky manner.

This is a high level strategy we all know called, "Bluffing". High level players like to make the enemy team think they have a lead or a chance to get them to play more cocky, and because the team doing this is still playing off of tilt, they're able to perform better than the enemy team. LMQ let Crs win the first to games to get them cocky enough to EASILY win the next game by a landslide, lower their cockyness but as well their confidence to win the second game, then have them severely on tilt to take down the third game. C9 would always lose the early game so the enemy team would be performing in a cocky mindset, making it easier for C9 to perform against.

But all of this still leaves Samsung White ending games fast. What does this have to do with anything? And what does this all have to do with Korean success? There are four parts of Korean success I'll be covering, all based on personality. The first is how addicted they are to technology. If you ask anyone who lives in South Korea if they have any Apple products, most of them will reply, "Yes". If you ask if they have any Apple products and a computer, the reply, for most, will still be, "Yes". If you ask them how much time they spend on these devices, well, "Korea is quite literally one of the most connected nations on earth." The next is their sleeplessness. Koreans do not sleep as much, or some even as often, as other human beings. This gives them even more time to be on their devices and get more things done. The third is the ppalli-ppalli (빨리빨리) culture, "which focuses on getting things done as quick as possible." Koreans want things done as fast as possible before anything goes wrong. The fourth is a manipulative mindset. They always try to keep a mindset that works against their opponent, and the most common form of that is emotional appeal. This is probably a poor reference, but if you've watched the new movie, "The Interview", Kim Jong Un is portrayed as a very manipulative man who appeals to your emotions to get his way, which is shown a lot in most Korean personalities.

This links into Korean success in many ways. First, Koreans spend a lot of time using technology, and their sleeplessness allows them more time to practice than most human beings, especially North Americans, as they are lazy and want to sleep as much as they want to, which is portrayed quite a lot in the TSM house. Second, Koreans want everything done as fast as possible, so they try to end their games before anything goes wrong. It is proven that the longer the game goes on, the more exhausted you become, and the sooner you want the game to end, causing you to react more "on tilt". Riot pls nerf amygdala. Finally, Koreans are manipulative, and enjoy toying with your mind to succeed in their game, by at first making you think you have the lead, then snagging the victory while you're on a cocky tilt.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX0SuC6S1EY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Znk4CyK7Y0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxE8wTbYJs8 LCS and Worlds http://seoulistic.com/korean-culture/personality-traits-about-koreans-you-should-know/