JJonak
| JJonak | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Current team | |
| Team | New York Excelsior |
| Role | Support |
| Games | Overwatch |
| League | Overwatch League |
| Personal information | |
| Name | Bang Sung-hyeon |
| Born | 1999 or 2000 (age 24–25)[1] |
| Nationality | Korean |
| Team history | |
| 2017 | LW Blue |
| 2018 | South Korea |
| 2018–present | New York Excelsior |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 방성현 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Bang Seong-hyeon |
| McCune–Reischauer | Pang Sŏnghyŏn |
Bang Sung-hyeon (Korean: 방성현), better known by his online alias JJonak (JO-nak), is a South Korean professional esports player, best known as a competitive Overwatch player for New York Excelsior. He was named most valuable player of the league's first season.
Early life
Bang "JJonak" Sung-hyeon was raised in Seoul, South Korea. He recalled having a good relationship with his parents and wanting to pursue a professional gaming career from a young age. He pursued first-person shooter and fighting video games rather than schoolwork. While in high school, JJonak discovered Overwatch, the game which he would later play professionally, at a PC Bang. JJonak's name is based on the Korean phrase "쪼물락낙지" (jjomullak nakji), which translates to "fumbling octopus". He modeled himself on professional Overwatch player Ryu "Ryujehong" Je-hong, by studying his playstyle, game settings, and choice of computing peripherals.[1]
Career
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 JJonak's New York Excelsior introduction |
New York Excelsior
2018 season: MVP season
JJonak professionally debuted with New York Excelsior in January 2018.[a] The team found massive success, sitting at the no. 1 seed for most of the season. JJonak quickly became known for his skill with the hero Zenyatta, a hero in the support role who JJonak adopted a unique, very aggressive playstyle for often dealing as much damage on the hero as enemy damage players. Within two months, Kotaku described JJonak's play as the most valuable on the top-ranked team, with his Zenyatta skill having surpassed that of his role model Ryujehong.[1] JJonak's Zenyatta playstyle was inimitable by other teams in the league's first season.[4]
While Zenyatta traditionally plays a support role on Overwatch teams, primarily healing and boosting allies and secondarily dealing damage, JJonak is known for using the character's high damage output. Zenyatta's two main abilities are orbs of harmony and discord, which can be assigned to other players to heal teammates and increase a damage multiplier on enemies, respectively. JJonak's skill with Zenyatta descends from his ability to predict enemy movements, aim with precision, and take risky moves, which altogether let him make long-distance sniper and trick shots better expected of players in damage-focused rather than support roles. For this reason, he often sidelines his team healing duties to prioritize damage. Support roles, such as those filled by Zenyatta, traditionally accompany a high-damage role as a bodyguard, but with JJonak's high-damage play, the New York Excelsior's other support player often would escort and boost JJonak. This nontraditional strategy contributed to the New York Excelsior's standout debut standings[1] and the two support players' receiving the highest season rankings.[5]
JJonak was named the most valuable player of the league's first season by an extremely large margin, earning twice as many votes as the next closest player, Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek of the LA Gladiators.[6] For this, Blizzard created a special cosmetic skin for Zenyatta inspired by JJonak's background, which was made available for players to purchase during the 2019 Overwatch League season.[7]
JJonak competed on the Atlantic Division's starting roster in the Overwatch League All-Star Weekend.
International career
Bang competed for Team South Korea in the 2018 Overwatch World Cup.[8] The team placed #1 seed in their qualifier round, winning every game. They competed against Russia, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, and Chinese Taipei. They played in the finals at BlizzCon in Los Angeles against Australia, the United Kingdom and China, winning all matches and being crowned the Overwatch world cup champions for a third consecutive year. JJonak also won the most valuable player award for this tournament.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d D'Anastasio, Cecilia (March 20, 2018). "An Overwatch Pro Is Turning The Game's Zen Monk Into A Vicious Killer". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Carpenter, Nicole (March 4, 2018). "NYXL's JJoNak: 'My role model is Seoul Dynasty's ryujehong'". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ "Five questions heading into the Overwatch League debut". ESPN.com. January 9, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Rand, Emily (May 29, 2018). "NYXL's WizardHyeong: 'I don't really care about this stage, personally.'". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ "Overwatch League by the numbers: the untouchable NYXL". ESPN.com. May 29, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Erzberger, Tyler (July 25, 2018). "OWL sendoffs: Goodbye New York and L.A." ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Castello, Jay (June 22, 2019). "Overwatch League's first MVP skin is pretty, lucky". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
- ^ Baker, Harry (July 3, 2018). "South Korea announce their 2018 Overwatch World Cup roster". Overwatch Wire. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
Further reading
- Allen, Eric Van (June 5, 2018). "How The New York Excelsior Took Over The Overwatch League". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- Castello, Jay (July 31, 2018). "What makes an Overwatch MVP?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- Erzberger, Tyler (July 12, 2018). "Overwatch League MVP JJoNak: 'So, [it's] 30 percent hard work, 70 percent talent'". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- Grayson, Nathan (July 12, 2018). "Overwatch League's First-Ever MVP Illustrates Its Support Problem". Kotaku. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- "OWL by the numbers: NYXL's troubles adapting to new meta". ESPN.com. July 21, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
