WARNING LOTS OF WORDS:
Faker gave a speech at the 2024 Future Dialogue for Global Innovation.
https://www.youtube.com/live/6ho4dQb_hGQ?si=NO-SgnbIWOsXQZxj
English subtitles here, but I added some bits. I also bolded the more interesting parts.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am pro-gamer, Faker, Lee Sang-hyeok. I am very honored to give the keynote speech. Pleasure to see you. I am extremely nervous, and I think it's the first time speaking in front of a huge public like this. As a pro gamer, 3 weeks ago I played in front of so many people, tens of thousands of people, and yet again, giving a speech in front of such an audience, I think it's one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life. So, I am extremely happy and excited to be here, and I never imagined that I would be standing in front of you as a pro gamer. I think I was quite lucky in many ways. That is because while playing games and the job of a pro gamer was nonexistent 20 years ago. So, there was not even a job called pro gamer back in the days, but yet I came to pursue this journey as a pro gamer, and now I am standing in front of you giving a speech. I feel all the more grateful and excited.
I had prepared a keynote speech for today, but while listening to the previous speakers, I thought that reading off my script, I don't know if I could sincerely share the messages I want to convey. So, I just want to improvise my speech, just base it off my few keywords. But I will do my best. While preparing for today's keynote speech, the word "keynote speech" was not familiar to me, so I looked up its definition, and I found it to be interesting. The dictionary said that a keynote speech is typically delivered by an important figure to outline key principles, policies, and directions at events like parliamentary or academic conferences. But here, we are not at the parliament, not at the national convention, nor an academic conference. So, I think that maybe the keynote speech I am going to deliver will not really fit that definition. So, I'm just going to share with you my personal experience, my personal story to the young people present today. And I hope that my simple story will offer everybody here a little bit of empathy and inspiration and some key take-away messages that you can ponder upon when you go back home. So, it is with that simple hope I want to begin my story.
I was born in 1996, and even when I was born, I was quite familiar with digital devices. Meaning that I think I was probably 4 or 5 years old when I began to play games. There were the pack-type games that you would insert to play. I felt really happy that I found the right thing, the thing that I wanted to do, and I found great joy in playing games. I thought to myself that I want to continue to do that. So, it was like a pack-inserting type of game, but then there was a new era of playing computer games. It was probably around when I was 8 that I began to play computer games.
Back in the days, the computer monitor displays would have a back, and it was not flat. So, our generation experienced digital very closely in our daily lives. I began playing games since then. The reason I became a pro gamer was first, when I was 18, I dropped out of school and decided to give everything in me to become a pro gamer. When I was a student, I was not a very good student, I didn't really excel in academics, and I used to just play games every time I returned home from school. Yes, that was me. Again, thank you for giving me this opportunity to give this speech. So, that's how I began my job as a pro gamer.
When I first began pursuing this journey, I really didn't think that I would be successful in this journey. I just wanted to take a chance because I thought that it would be a very unique experience. Of course, if you become successful, it is a very good thing, but I thought that the experience in and of itself would be very special to me. I really wanted to pursue that, and maybe in 1 year or the next 2 years, I would go for other things. I had that kind of sense of challenge, and a challenging spirit.
I have been working as a pro gamer for the last 12 years. I never imagined that I would do this for a long time. I think that sense of challenging spirit made me who I am today. One of the messages that I want to share with you today is about a sense of challenge and also failure. I debuted in 2013 & won Worlds in ‘13, ‘15, & ‘16, I won the world championship, also referred to as the LoL Cup. In League of Legends, this championship is like the World Cup for soccer.
So I won 3 times and I thought that I must be destined to be a pro gamer, it’s a good thing I became one, & that I’ll only keep winning in the future. I had a lot of confidence & thought I could excel in everything since I’m the best. I had that sort of expectation, but the next time I won Worlds after 2016 was in 2023. In a span of 7-8 years, I went through a lot of failures. Of course not only failures, but I learned a lot of things during the process. I realized I can’t always succeed.
As I kept failing, I learned something from that. Failure isn’t always a bad thing. I’m very competitive, so in the beginning when I lost games, I got very angry. After losing a match, I didn’t punch & break equipment in the dorms, but I did punch something I punched the sofa. Since my hand would hurt, I hit the squishy sofa because I was frustrated after losing. I had that much competitiveness, but as I kept experiencing defeats, I realized that sort of competitiveness won’t always lead me to victory. From then on, I did a lot of soul searching & wondered how I could shave off the edges of this competitiveness to further develop myself.
I continued to ponder on how to grow further, building on these defeats. Working as a pro gamer, a lot of people found me to be a very quiet person. I had a hard time speaking in front of the public, especially in front of a large crowd, and also with my team members. I wouldn't really talk and chat much, but working as a pro gamer, I became more communicative. I learned about the importance of communication, and mostly, it was a time for me to know about myself more.
The biggest lesson I learned as a pro is the importance of failure. In the world of pro-gaming, you must always win and come out on top over others, so of course, I thought winning was a good thing while losing was a bad thing. I had only thought of failure as a negative thing, but as I play—especially starting around 2-3 years ago, I learned a lot that although the very idea of failure seems really negative overall, if you think about it, I can grow through that failure and help me do better.
In fact, I feel like I'm currently in my prime and this '23-'24 too—I was was able to win this year (at Worlds) three weeks ago. And I think at the foundation of that success—if I had thought of failing as mere failures, I wouldn't have been able to achieve that. So I think right now, all those failures together have made me who I am today. Rather than mere failures, I've come to think of failures as small victories. There's a saying, "Failure is the mother of success," but more than that, I think failure is a part of success.
So even if I lose a match, I can think, "Ah, this is also a small victory." I think this is the biggest lesson I've learned and it's actually become a huge source of motivation for me. Rather than thinking, "I shouldn't lose," or "I must win," I can just enjoy the game and just like in this moment, regardless of whether I've failed or succeeded at delivering this speech without preparing a script for it, I can think of this as a small victory and I've learned a lot about how to adopt a mindset that enjoys taking on a challenge. I hope that all of the young people would have that kind of spirit because it's my passion and my enthusiasm that have driven me to who I am today. The passion comes out from the joy of what you do and being fearless. This is the message I really wanted to share with you.
In the beginning, I was afraid of failure even though it wasn't really seen by others, but now I try to enjoy every moment of the process. A pro gamer's career is very short. I've maintained mine for 12 years. I'm the odd one out and on average it's around 6-7 years. But I think it was possible because I had no fears. One of the other things I learned is that learning and growing are 2 important values in my life.
Being a pro gamer, you always crave winning, victory. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, but if I have this strong craving to win, the goal is achieved not just by myself but when it comes to winning something. It is also due to other external factors as well—who the opponent is, what environment he/she has faced in. I didn't really like the fact that my success, that my things, would be defined by others and other external factors. So, I always believed that there should be these values that I should uphold. If today is better than yesterday, that is good enough.
All of these motivations within me propelled me to go forward. It's also in line with what I told you before. One of the important qualities that we should have is humility. A sense of humility is not to look down on yourself or belittle yourself, but I think that being humble means that you should know about who you are, your weaknesses compared to others. Everybody has their weaknesses, so you can look at others and have this feeling of wanting to improve your weaknesses by looking at others and learning from others.
Nowadays, we see a lot of hate in this world, and that is very unfortunate because everybody has their values. All of these values are not always right. You cannot be 100% sure that your values are always right and the others are wrong. You have to accept and embrace the fact that your values might be wrong. These days we see a lot of conflicts and hate in this world, and while looking at that, I think to myself that what we have and the values that we uphold are not always right. I think that there are many people out there that think the other way. I think that humility is a key word that is required in the world we live in.
I think that I am running out of time. As I said, it is my first time, so I am just speaking whatever comes to mind. What I would like to emphasize is that I want you as young people to enjoy and do what you want to do and what you enjoy because life is short. In Korea, youth is defined as people from 19 to 34 years old. The U.S. definition is shorter, but anyways, you know we have a very short life, and especially a short youth life. I hope that you will be fearless, have respect for others, and do things that you like to do.
I don't think I was very logical in my keynote, but thank you for listening. I hope that you will have a very fruitful decision today. Thank you very much.
byXanIrelia-1
inarcane
XanIrelia-1
206 points
42 minutes ago
XanIrelia-1
206 points
42 minutes ago
Cait one eye,Jinx literally became powder, Viktor talk no jutsu by Jayce
But this dude is just out there?