JJonak

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.

In this Korean name, the family name is Bang.
JJonak
Bang Sung-hyeon
Personal information
Born1999/2000 (age 20–21)[1]
NationalityKorean
Career information
LeagueOverwatch League
Current teamNew York Excelsior
GamesOverwatch
RoleSupport
Career history
2017LW Blue
2018South Korea
2018–presentNew York Excelsior
Career highlights and awards
Korean name
Hangul
방성현
Revised RomanizationBang Seong-hyeon
McCune–ReischauerPang Sŏnghyŏn

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 video
JJonak's New York Excelsior introduction

2018 season: MVP season

JJonak professionally debuted with New York Excelsior in January 2018.[lower-alpha 1] 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
  1. JJonak had previously signed with LW Blue in 2017, but in preparation to join the Overwatch League, where the team would compose most of New York Excelsior's roster, LW Blue did not compete professionally.[2] He also could not compete in the league's pre-season due to its minimum age cutoff.[3]

References
  1. 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.
  2. Carpenter, Nicole (March 4, 2018). "NYXL's JJoNak: 'My role model is Seoul Dynasty's ryujehong'". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  3. "Five questions heading into the Overwatch League debut". ESPN.com. January 9, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  4. Rand, Emily (May 29, 2018). "NYXL's WizardHyeong: 'I don't really care about this stage, personally.'". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  5. "Overwatch League by the numbers: the untouchable NYXL". ESPN.com. May 29, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  6. Erzberger, Tyler (July 25, 2018). "OWL sendoffs: Goodbye New York and L.A." ESPN.com. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  7. Castello, Jay (June 22, 2019). "Overwatch League's first MVP skin is pretty, lucky". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  8. Baker, Harry (July 3, 2018). "South Korea announce their 2018 Overwatch World Cup roster". Overwatch Wire. Retrieved August 5, 2018.

Further reading
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Incumbent		 Overwatch League MVP
2018		 Succeeded by
Jay "sinatraa" Won
Preceded by
Félix "xQc" Lengyel		 Overwatch World Cup MVP
2018		 Succeeded by
Jay "sinatraa" Won
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