While we wait anxiously for the next season of the Vainglory International Premier League to start up, I got the opportunity to ask Brendan “Valdes” Valdes some interview questions. If you know me very well, you’ll know that I didn’t send Valdes your standard set of questions.
Instead, I tried to send him personal, awkward, and real questions, with a few curve balls along the way. To make things even better, his responses were very fresh, candid, and insightful. I tried to include as much as I could that didn’t embarrass either of us!
Q) I noticed you were able to translate some of the Korean signs during VIPL. How long have you been in Korea, and how did you learn to speak Korean?
A) I came to Korea in May 2012, so I have been here for over three years. I attended a Korean language school for about a year, and I would say that now my Korean is conversational, but not fluent. Nowadays, I try to improve on my Korean by just speaking with my Korean friends and coworkers.
Q) You mentioned a competitive side. Where does that stem from?
A) The competitive side definitely does come from having a couple of older brothers to boss me around when I was younger. We used to see who could wake up earlier to take the only family computer we had, and whoever would get to it first would get to use it all day long.
Q) Did you ever play competitive hockey?
A) I played competitive hockey for about 15 years right up until I came to Korea. The highest level I ever got to was Junior A in the Northeast of the US.
Q) Who is your favorite support, and why is it Catherine?
A) To be honest I love Catherine nowadays. I did have that one rant on one of the casts about how she wasn’t having much of an impact in some of the VIPL games in the hands of incompetent players, but teams like pQq (when they don’t spam Adagio) and Beyond have shown me the light.
Q) Joule or Skye? Why?
A) Skye is an easy pick here for me. Less metal, more agile and Korean to boot!
Q) On a scale of 1 to Tommy, how OP is Krul in your opinion?
A) I think for Krul to do Tommy justice he’d have to have long flowing hair and be as strong as Kraken. As of now I think I’d rate him at about 1/4 Tommy level.
Q) Do you have accounts on other servers? What’s your skill tier on your main account?
A) I only have an account that I play on on the East Asia server. My skill tier is Pretty Good gold… still working on getting that to a respectable level!
Q) Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized Krakens, or one Kraken-sized duck?
A) The idea of fighting 100 duck-sized Krakens sounds really appealing, as I could pull out my Rona axes and spin to win for 9000+ points. Also, a Kraken-sized duck sounds really %&#@ing scary!
Q) Who was your childhood hero growing up?
A) Definitely Captain Underpants. Seriously go check those books out, they were hilarious.
Q) Who is your hero now?
A) My hero now is any eSports fan that is a positive influence on the scene and doesn’t just hate because they are an angry person.
Q) What do you expect to see in the future for VIPL?
A) As Vainglory grows as a game, there will be increasingly more competition from countries around the world, coaches, analysts, etc. I think once this begins to happen the game will become more studied, and we will begin to see new metas and ideas about the way Vainglory is played.
Q) Which region had a stronger VGL champion? NA or EU?
A) I think Ardent Alliance from NA looked like the stronger team at the end of the VGL qualifiers. Gamers2 can definitely improve in leaps and bounds by the time they play against the strong and experienced VIPL teams.
BONUS: Tell us something about yourself that you’re proud of, but also something that not many people know.
A) I once called 911 because I got gum stuck in my long, curly, five-year-old hair. Some people would see that as embarrassing, but I like to say I was being mindful.
A big thank you to Valdes for taking the time to answer some questions and have some fun with the BrokenMyth staff! We look forward to seeing his insightful commentary in the next iteration of the VIPL! Until then, you can find Valdes on Twitter.