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A Deep Analysis On Why Koreans Are So Successful

Roll in Grass·12/28/2014, 11:15:32 PM·9 votes·4,131 views

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/

43 Comments

SexyTaylorSwift12/29/2014, 1:18:41 AM10 votes

I actually think it is because Koreans don't say stupid shit like "It's just a game".

TheKingDodo12/29/2014, 12:45:50 AM7 votes

Are you saying all koreans have no anuses and can talk to dolphins?

Madra12/29/2014, 3:03:39 AM6 votes

Why does Netherlands dominate speed-skating? Is it because they bluff their opponents, or manipulate the ice? You are over-thinking the problem. It's a combination of infrastructure (coaches, managers, money, support, equipment, etc...) and cultural prominence.

DexterousGecko12/29/2014, 1:11:30 AM5 votes

It has nothing to do with laziness or sleeping less lol. Korean society is built around being better than everyone else. I have students that aren't happy with a 95 percent test score because their friend got a 96. The competitive nature of Koreans is so much more than anyone else in the world (that I've seen).

season is doomed12/29/2014, 12:24:48 AM3 votes

This might be the best post ive seen on these forums.

Yulen Xoshxius12/29/2014, 12:58:24 AM2 votes

I have a question: If they let the other team get ground in the begining, how do they keep up with the gold differences and the enemy getting fed?

MugyvrNinja12/28/2014, 11:51:16 PM2 votes

Interesting article to read. I think your theory is pretty close to the spot in any form of competitive play what makes a average player into a great player is the ability to consider states of mind. I was thinking of Mike Tyson wile reading this for he is a prime example that would implement fear into his opponents by just presenting him self scrambling there ability's to be rational. When watching worlds I felt this was the same case with Samsung white, remember they are only human any thing they can do you can...

D0nC12/30/2014, 3:25:29 PM1 votes

Koreans are only successful at RTS based games, it just so happens this game and SC2 are extremely popular due to American monetary backing.

Koreans suck (or perform mediocre) at FPS games, fighting games and MMORPG games.

If you want to call a country successful for having a type of genre under it's control, you should be speaking of America where we control FPS and MMORPGS in general right next to Europe (but Europe is not a country).

RTS are MOBAS, yes big news.

ChargeItDownMid12/29/2014, 1:43:55 AM1 votes

[deleted]

Gear Kitty12/29/2014, 10:58:59 AM1 votes

OP, SHHHHHHHHHH!

Don't give away the secrets! This is basically all I've got going for me!

Winning the early game is nice, but aside from some obscene powerspikes certain champs have with core items (Morg/Fid/Fizz with Zhonya, Shiv on Yas/GP), I've found my opponent GREATLY overestimates their relative power to my own when I lose lane.

I do not play against the enemy mid when I'm Kat.

I do not play against the enemy jungler when I Rammus.

I'm not matched against the enemy Support when I'm Braum or Leona.

It is my TEAM against their TEAM. 95% of the time, the better TEAM wins. My game today shows that.

Rammus: Me. Morg, Sivir, and Lulu: my group in a skype call. Fiora: Top laner we picked up from TB.

By my first back in the jungle, all of our lanes were losing. Morg was solo'd by their Yas, Shaco ganked top for Trundle to kill Fiora, and our bot lane were far behind against the Lucian/Sona combo. The Morg player, our best overall player in our group, had already admitted defeat, and just wanted it over. But I know that early game is the shortest and least impactful portion.

I ganked mid once. Twice. Three times. Yasuo was already cursing people out before the minions spawned, so I KNEW I could get him on tilt by screwing with his power-fantasy. I played up Rammus' more reliable ganks over their Shaco. I made sure Bot knew to play defensively, and mostly left Fiora to her own (aside from a failed gank top, mouse went unresponsive during Powerball...) because I knew both her and Trundle would be powerful late game anyway.

They took the first two Dragons. They had a kill advantage the whole game. But like four out of every five stronger teams in TB that I see, they entered a zero-sum fail loop. They played death-squad, hiding in bushes, moving as a group, four or five man ganking a split pusher... it's was beautifully atrocious. They pushed in to our base so hard that all 3 inhibs were down at certain points, and only a timely minion spawning and a bad focus on their part saved the only tower remaining.

At this point, our Sivir and Lulu were still bad, but the AoE Damage and CC were useful. The Morg had reached near full power, and had confidence again, and Fiora was picking up on our few cues to coordinate plays.

The final nail in the coffin was them grabbing Baron. It's such a trap these days that I've won more games against teams who killed him than I've won where I've killed him. Our lanes were neutral or pushing in our favor (never underestimate Rammus and Sivir split-pushes!) and we came on them right after Baron, sweeping most of them. Morg went back to base to defend the Nexus as we went offensive, and we ended about two minutes later.

I'm almost certain their Yas rage-quit for a chunk of time. To top their whole farce off, Lucian had a Thornmail and Yasuo a Randuin. They were so frightened of Fiora 1v5ing (she went 21/15, most kills and most deaths) that they lost to us by building counter-wise to their power-fantasy.

Our powerfantasies were just fine though. By building a heavy tank item on both carries, they were not as powerful as they though they could be entering the game. By fearing a single enemy, they lost confidence in their own strength.

My group does not play for the early game. When we end up having the early advantage, the enemy surrenders at 20. When we're behind is when we get the brawls, the good games.

The games where we get to show that just because you drew blood before us doesn't mean you're better.

LankPants12/29/2014, 11:10:55 AM1 votes

Koreans are better because they play for 13-14 hours a day with no breaks for 4/5ths of the year. That's basically it, if TSM wanted to play for 14 hours a day they could get just as good.

You also heavily underestimate curse, Cop had the third best showings of any ADC in NA after Wild and Sneaky, placing above Doublelift and Vasilli, and he's the guy they replaced.

Celeste Benal12/29/2014, 8:51:40 PM1 votes

Astute observation. But there is an obvious conclusion that you have failed to make. Early in the game (before everyone gets to 18) is when a team can have the greatest advantage. Once everyone gets to 18, only items and player skill make a difference. Even then you can only have so many items. Eventually, everyone will be 18 and full build; even playing field.

So if a team gains an early advantage, it behooves them to finish as soon as possible, rather than drag it out and risk the other team catching up, which they are guaranteed to do.

Der Lindwurm12/29/2014, 11:46:20 PM1 votes

I never imagined it was so complicated. I always thought it was pretty simply: 1) It means more to them and they're willing to work harder for it and 2) rather than copying others and following the rules they try different things and are flexible.