We All Cheer For Jecse
Lee "Jecse" Seung-soo is a darling of the Overwatch League, beloved not only for his skill, but his affable story of potential, redemption, and most importantly, growth. The only thing that is missing is the apex, the climax to his wholesome story, where he can lean back, kick his shoes off, and reap what he’s sown.
His journey is relatable not because we all see ourselves becoming professional Overwatch League players, rather something that we can all see reflected within our own lives.
Jecse first made a name for himself as a part of Element Mystic during their attempt to qualify for OGN’s Overwatch APEX. Season 5 was right around the corner and he and his team were sat at the top, ready to test their might against the best South Korea had to offer. Scratch that, APEX was cancelled and in its place came Overwatch Contenders, the Overwatch League’s amateur division. The names were different, but the competition remained, and so did Jecse and Element Mystic.
They quickly pushed through the group stage of 2018’s introductory season and advanced as a top seed. Jecse and Element Mystic were easily the favourites in the playoffs; they were the only team out of the eleven others to go undefeated. Unfortunately, in one of the most unexpected and biggest upsets in Overwatch, Element Mystic lost to O2 Ardeont, a team that narrowly made playoffs with a negative match record. Heads in their hands, emotions overflowing, Element Mystic were sent home with a fifth-eighth place finish. A team that never lost, out in the quarterfinals. However, Jecse wouldn’t leave Element Mystic on a sour note. The team battled back in the following season, making playoffs once again, but were sent home by the eventual champions, RunAway, in the semifinals.
Click to enlargeThe wishes and regrets of the past soon had to be shelved, Jecse was being called up the Overwatch League as a part of the Seoul Dynasty for their 2019 run. The lion's share of his appearances came during Stage 1 and Stage 3, the two stages where Seoul would reach the stage playoffs. The team was solid all around, Jecse had to share stage time with veteran support player and Seoul mainstay Yang "tobi" Jin-mo, but overall the team had potential. Ultimately the Dynasty won their playoff seed through a strong showing in the play-in tournament but floundered their strong foot forward in the playoffs losing to the Vancouver Titans and the Hangzhou Spark. Another at-bat, another attempt, but Jecse remained a spectator. Perhaps 2020 would be his year.
People will remember the 2020 Houston Outlaws as the team that was almost there. Just a few more weeks, just the right metagame away from showcasing what they knew they had in them, an eerie echo of Jecse's journey. Suffering illness to start the season, battling through Hero Pools and a global pandemic, Houston came just shy of overcoming the narrative stranglehold placed on them due to their strength in practice. Jecse and the Outlaws ended the season being upset by the Boston Uprising. Like ending on a crescendo that never resolves, Jecse is sat on the horizon once again as the league marches in-land, waiting for his climax.
That said, when is the final chapter? When is the climax? The answer holds no closure, no finality, no pretty red ribbon that ties everything together. The answer is; whenever. Whenever it happens, it happens. Jecse is stuck in the purgatory of rising action, he's looking for the spark, the drill to pierce the heavens—he just needs a few more minutes to assemble it—and that's okay. He'll get there and so will you, so will we all. There is no egg timer on success or potential; it happens when it happens.
Jecse's potential, like seeds to a garden, carries the possibilities of growth and success. Just because a few were scattered too wide or too far out of reach doesn't mean they've been wasted; instead, they need to continue to the right topsoil, in the right temperature, in the right environment. Jecse's story, all that he's worked for isn't spoiled due to one, two, or multiple misses. He'll get there. He'll find his resolution.
Click to enlargeThe pragmatist in all of us tends to look under the individual’s shoes when things repeatedly go awry, and while that’s good practice, some things truly cannot be helped. In Jecse’s case, we can’t blame him, because for all metrics he’s performing well and, on numerous occasions, he has been talked about as someone who brings impressive intangibles to a team. He’s just swung and missed, caught in the intangible mire of entropy. Jecse wants to run, but he can’t. No betrayal of the body. No devious rival to blame. Just the unfortunate nature of life.
This also isn’t a subtle criticism to any of the teams Jecse has played for. Element Mystic was a good team for their time, the Seoul Dynasty in 2019 had strong runs in Stage 1 and Stage 3, and the Houston Outlaws were constantly a threat behind the scenes—they just, for whatever reason, could not translate it to the stage. Again, it is what it is. It’s unfortunate, but it happens.
It’s no one person’s fault. It is what it is.
Sometimes things happen, things out of our control, good, bad, or indifferent. Similar to the wind, you can get mad at it when it runs by and swipes your hat from you or snaps your umbrella in a storm, but when you stop for a moment and think on it, it’s not the wind’s fault that it is the way it is, there really isn’t some nebulous circumstance to blame either. It just is.
It happens.
Click to enlargeAristotle said that “one swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.” Does one poor performance detract a towering resume of work? Does one poor season spell a career death sentence? We all cheer for Jecse because at the end of the day; it is what it is and we’ve all been there.
In a way, it’s a story of honesty, honest in the sense that everyone experiences that same inevitability of things. That familiar feeling of life pushing its leftovers in your face before cutting in with a bratty “no, you eat it.” That ironic trope of having hundreds of forks but only needing a knife. We all know it, and we certainly don’t love it, but it’s tangible, it’s honest.
At its core, it houses the same building blocks of the story of an underdog, punching above his weight after multiple chapters of barriers and bumps in the road. The dog that finally sees its day, only that’s the missing piece; the day, the day where Jecse finally reaches the climax of his story. Where he rushes the stage, hoists the trophy high above his head and cheers, rather than being the perpetual spectator. Someone who only watches happiness and fulfilment and has to slouch down, with tears in his eyes, wrapping up his mouse and keyboard, waiting for another attempt next year.
We see our own reflection in his pool of spilt milk, but like the adage goes; there is no use in crying over it. Your story doesn’t matter, not does it discount your inherent potential, be like Jecse, continue to show up, never say die. That’s why we cheer.
We can’t help but cheer, because at the end of the day; we see a bit of ourselves in Jecse’s journey.
He can reach his apex, and so can you.
Images via Blizzard Entertainment
