Slingshot Readers,

We NEED your support. More specifically, the author of this article needs your support. If you've been enjoying our content, you know that a lot of work goes into our stories and although it may be a work of passion, writers gotta eat. If just half our readers gave 1 DOLLAR a month, one measly dollar, we could fund all the work from StuChiu, DeKay, Emily, Andrew (and even Vince). If you contribute 5 DOLLARS a month, we invite you to join our Discord and hang with the team. We wouldn't bother you like this if we didn't need your help and you can feel good knowing that 100% of your donation goes to the writers. We'd really appreciate your support. After all, you're what makes all this happen. Learn more

Ruler on Samsung’s journey to the semifinals, who he’d rather play and crowd noise

Interview by
10.15.16

Samsung Galaxy’s dream season has continued after Thursday’s 3-0 win against Cloud9 in the quarterfinals of the League of Legends World Championship.

Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk was a standout during the sweep, as he has been for large parts of what is still his rookie season. With a date in the semifinals in New York City, Ruler and Samsung have at least another week to play.

Slingshot’s Vince Nairn talked to Ruler after the win (through an interpreter) about being booed, reaching the semifinals and differences in crowd noise in America compared to Korea.

Vince Nairn: Congratulations on the win. How would you sum it up overall?

Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk: I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling today’s victory was a very clean one, and we won as a team, so I’m feeling very nice.

VN: You guys have obviously come far to get here. You’re in the semifinals of worlds. Did you imagine getting this far when the season started?

PJH: I personally believed that we would be able to because in practice we were getting much better. So I personally had belief, but at the same time, I can’t really believe that it actually happened.

VN: You guys came out and the fans booed you initially and then cheered you later on. How did you react to walking into kind of a hostile environment?

PJH: I think it was a worthy experience for me. It was really weird to get booed at some point and also get cheered on later, so I think it was a good experience.

VN: Going onto the semifinals, you’ll be playing either H2K or Albus NoX Luna. Is there a team you prefer to play? Or is there anything in particular you’re monitoring from either team?

PJH: I personally think H2K is the better team, so I’d really like to meet H2K because I’d like to face the better team.

VN: What has this entire experience been like for you, just traveling to different cities and seeing parts of America?

PJH: The United States is a really big country. You have to take a plane to get from a city to another one, so that’s been pretty tiring.

VN: With two other Korean teams in the quarterfinals, are you paying much attention to who wins? Is there any bit of Korean pride involved?

PJH: As a Korean, I am cheering for the Korean teams. But I’m also cheering a little bit for the Chinese teams because the Korean teams are so good, and I kind of just want to face the Chinese teams.

VN: What has been the best or most rewarding part of this entire run to worlds?

PJH: So we’re in America and we faced an American team. I could hear a lot of chanting for USA and “Let’s go C9!” and stuff like that, so that was really interesting.

VN: Is that different than you’re used to?

PJH: I think it was very interesting for me because I never experienced such loud chanting before. My hope is that one day, people will chant “Samsung! Samsung!”

Cover photo courtesy of Riot Games