Lee Seung-yong, 44, executive director overseeing global strategy and new business at Gen.G Esports, met with ChosunBiz at a cafe near Seonjeongneung in Seoul on the 20th and introduced his first full-length novel, Project Pentakill Again. Gen.G Esports is a global esports club headquartered in Los Angeles that operates a professional team officially affiliated with Korea's League of Legends (LoL) Champions Korea (LCK). It is a North America- and Asia-based international club active in multiple titles including LoL and Battlegrounds, and in the LCK it has consistently delivered championship-contending results in recent years.
Lee has a rare career, spending eight years in sports and eight years in esports. He graduated from Yonsei University's College of European Languages and Literature and earned a master's in sports management from the University of Connecticut. He learned sports organization operations and on-site systems firsthand while working on the Kolon sports team's sports marketing team, serving as Head of Team in IMG's golf division, and as operations head for the 2015 Presidents Cup. He then served as head of esports for Asia-Pacific (APAC) at Blizzard Entertainment, directly overseeing the entire process from the birth to the operation of the Overwatch League, and experienced the strengths and weaknesses of the global esports league structure closer than anyone.
He is also the author of six practical books, including Breaking Down Sports Marketing and Breaking Down Esports Marketing. But he said the tension, conflict, and emotional contours of the field can never be captured in a how-to book, so he tried narrative fiction for the first time.
Project Pentakill Again lays bare the other side of the esports industry: the tangled interests among players, coaching staff, the front office, and league operators; structural tremors as game IP (intellectual property) lifecycles change; and the impact of fandom opinion and consumption patterns on team operations. The protagonist Haigeon's arc of failure and comeback is based on realities the author witnessed firsthand in the field, such as players' careers being cut off, leagues being downsized or dissolved, and the absence of second careers. Lee said, "I have seen far too many talents disappear without ever seeing the light," and added, "I wanted to deliver a message of 'respawn' to those who didn't get a second chance." The following is a Q&A with Lee.
─Why did you choose to write a novel? What scene or event motivated you?
"The biggest problem I felt working in sports and esports is that the survival competition hidden behind the glamorous stage isn't properly known. After repeatedly seeing players who disappear without even debuting and teams that are dismantled overnight due to league structure changes, I felt a strong need to document the industry's other side. I judged that a practical book couldn't capture the field's emotions, conflicts, and density, so I first began serializing as a web novel, but expanded it into a full-length novel to deliver the industry's structural reality more deeply. That sense of purpose was the starting point for Project Pentakill Again."
─Did the protagonist's arc of failure and comeback reflect your own experiences?
"Haigeon is a fictional character, but his emotional line touches the responsibility, pressure, frustration, and recovery I directly experienced in the industry. While overseeing the entire rise and decline of the Overwatch League, I saw closer than anyone how a title's boom and bust affect players, coaching staff, and the front office. In particular, the weight a league operator feels, the responsibility to protect the organization, and the burden of results largely come from my experience. Those emotions naturally entered Haigeon's inner narrative."
─Why emphasize the message of a "second chance (respawn)"?
"Most pro gamers go all-in on life in their teens, but the chance of debut is very low and the career lifecycle is short. An unprepared retirement makes returning to society difficult. In reality, as several leagues ended, many players lost their paths, and options were limited to things like switching titles, coaching, or streaming. So a 'second chance' is closer to designing a new life and rebuilding one's value than simple reemployment. I felt that recovery process is the most urgent theme in the esports industry, which is why I made respawn the work's core message."
─Are the conflicts of interest among players, coaches, and the front office in the novel the same in reality?
"They occur very frequently in reality. For coaches, performance and winning come first, while for the front office, profitability and financial stability come first. The front office needs to put players into content and events for sponsor exposure and fan service, but coaches often restrict it over concerns about reduced training focus. In addition, esports has the variable of game lifespan, making league survival uncertain, so the financial pressure and operational stress are even greater. The novel's conflict structure is not much different from scenes that are repeatedly seen in the industry."
─Are there real cases where fandom directly affected team operations?
"Esports fandom is immediate and highly influential, both positive and negative. When form wavers, toxic opinion quickly forms and affects player mentality and team atmosphere. On the other hand, offline cheering by loyal fans, merchandise consumption, and event participation become decisive driving forces for team survival. There are cases where, during financially difficult times, fans voluntarily purchased merchandise or launched support campaigns and helped teams secure a survival base. Those experiences are reflected as-is in the novel."
─What is the biggest pressure the front office faces every day in reality?
"The biggest pressure is diversifying revenue models and securing the annual budget. Since many leagues are based on investment by game companies, it's difficult to keep teams stable on league revenue alone. Therefore, the front office must secure every revenue stream—sponsorships, IP business, content production, academy operations—to cover salaries, facility costs, and operating costs. If salary payday, housing, or practice facility operating costs are delayed even once, a team's existence is shaken, so work is always under pressure. The depiction in the novel of a 'general manager who is responsible for every expense' is not an exaggeration in the industry."
─What is the biggest expense driver for a club?
"It varies by title, but generally the largest share is the aggregates of player salaries. Not every title has a high-salary structure like LoL, and there are big differences depending on popularity, league size, and market value. Facility expenses such as practice rooms and housing are also significant, but a common point is the high share of investment in people—coaching, analysis, marketing, and sales. Esports teams are people-intensive businesses."
─What part of the front office's invisible labor do you most want readers to know?
"It's the 'invisible fight for sustainability.' The front office handles many tasks—contracts, budgets, sponsors, administration, and risk management—so players can focus solely on performance. The scenes of Haigeon staying up all night reviewing contracts and running around to find sponsors are not far from a front office's daily life. I wanted to emphasize that such invisible labor is essential for a team to exist."
─Compared with traditional sports, what are esports' unique strengths and weaknesses?
"Esports' strengths are global scalability and digital accessibility. It spreads worldwide quickly without language or regional constraints. The biggest weakness, however, is structural dependence on the lifespan of a game IP. Long-running games like LoL and StarCraft are exceptions; most games see their ecosystems shrink within one to two years. Because ownership of a title lies with the game company, there is also a structural constraint where core elements such as league operations, sponsorships, and media rights are subject to the IP holder's policies."
─What structure is needed for a club to be sustainable regardless of a title's lifespan?
"The key is independence of the club brand that is not subordinate to a specific game IP. Hold teams in multiple titles to spread risk, expand the club brand itself into IP businesses (content, merchandise, education), and build a global fandom. Gen.G's expansion of revenue sources through academies, content, and distribution is a representative example. When a team's own fandom forms, sustainability emerges regardless of the title."
─What will be the biggest change in the esports industry over the next five years?
"It's highly likely that popular games will fragment further by region. Southeast Asia and South America are mobile-centric, North America is console-centric, and Korea and Europe are PC-centric, so ecosystems are split. Titles that unite the world like LoL may be hard to emerge. However, if such regional growth is combined, the global market could actually grow larger. At the same time, the value of content and media rights will rise, expanding the media rights market, and systems for managing player life cycles, welfare, and retirement support will become more specialized."