Interview with Bischu's Girlfriend, Rachel: "I don't think that he's going to stay out of the scene forever."

Aaron "Bischu" Kim has been part of the competitive League of Legends scene for the last two and a half years, playing on a number of challenger series teams including Complexity, The Walking Zed, and most recently Cloud 9 Tempest. He is most known for his mid lane play, especially his Nidalee. After the last promotion tournament Bischu announced his retirement from competitive League of Legends.

Rachel, his girlfriend, is a youtuber who has supported him throughout his time in the challenger scene and took the time to tell us about how their relationship affected his career, and their plans for the future.

 

How did you two first meet?

Rachel: We first met through Twitch.tv. We initially started talking around October of last year... but, funny enough story, a few months before I was even a regular in his streams and only watched him every now and again he was doing a teaching stream for his viewers. He would get people to enter the Twitch.tv random generator contest and would choose somebody that way to give him a champion to play. He had thousands of viewers that day because he was doing that, and somehow I was chosen. [Of course I chose a Zyra lesson!] Later when we started talking, he remembered that... just a funny story I suppose!

 

Has your relationship changed your view on League of Legends or eSports as a whole?

Rachel: In general, not really. I obviously have a better insight into the life of a pro player and I've learned a lot about the game itself, but other than that, not really. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that what I do as a YouTuber and as an entertainer has the same basic concept as what pros do, it's just in a less "professional" sense. Overall I feel like my views have not changed that much.

 

Do you think there's anything different about supporting someone in the challenger circuit compared to supporting someone in the LCS? Is it less stressful, less time consuming, more stressful...?

Rachel: I think it's pretty much the same, to be honest. It's not the same exact stress, but there is still the stress of having to make it into the LCS as opposed to trying to stay in the LCS. That would be the only difference... it's staying in the LCS stress versus getting into the LCS stress. It might even be more stressful for the challenger player himself because it's not his job yet and he's not getting paid a salary to play like the pro players who are already there do. It's still the same scrimming and practicing schedule though.

 

Have you two attended any events together?

Rachel: The only event we've attended together was the promotion tournament last weekend for his games against EG... that was really fun. But it's the only event we've attended together so far.

 

Did you get to develop a relationship with his teammates? Since you mentioned that supporting someone in the challenger scene is pretty much the same as supporting someone in the LCS, a lot of the previous people I've interviewed have said that they have a pretty good relationship with a lot of their significant other's teammates. Do you have the same situation or did you maybe not get to see them as much?

Rachel: Actually, I feel like I did become friends with all of his teammates. I would consider them friends, at least, and I would hope that they consider me to be their friend. I got to hang out with all of them for quite a while!

 

Have you two had any conflicts balancing your career as a YouTuber and his career as a pro League of Legends player?

Rachel: No, they don't really conflict because I make my own schedule and so I can basically work my schedule around his.

 

Are there any issues that come up sometimes because of the fact that you two are both gaming personalities? Does the two of you dating ever create problems?

Rachel: No, but I don't think that has to do with the fact that we're both gaming personalities, I think that it has more to do with both of us as people. I could see where his schedule particularly could get in the way of a relationship but I think that I have a somewhat different perspective on the fact that it is his job [to play a video game] and so I'm completely understanding of the fact that even when we've hung out in person, he's either had to scrim or play in tournament matches that he's absolutely obligated to play. So, I could see where that could cause issues but, [as someone who plays video games for a living myself], I don't have an issue with it.

 

How do the two of you support each other in your respective jobs, especially with you both being gaming personalities?

Rachel: I don't know if there's anything different between supporting one another in a gaming job versus a "normal" job... I guess we just support each other as someone would normally support their significant other.

 

So, as you know, Bischu recently retired after the promotion tournament. Did he ask you for any advice or support on this decision?

Rachel: This is kind of a difficult question to answer. He had already planned on going to school this coming year. It was a sticky situation because of his citizenship and his visa situation. I don't want to go into too much detail about it, but basically it was either go to school now or don't go to school, at least at UCSD. He would have had to reapply anyway if he deferred again. This is actually a really difficult question to answer because while he did retire for now, I don't think that he's going to stay out of the scene forever. I understand that a lot of people are very upset about it but they don't have much of a reason to be considering he can still take breaks from school later when A.) the scene is more stable, B.) he finds another team, and C.) when he has completed some schooling of course.

 

That kind of leads into what I was going to ask next, "Have you two discussed any plans for the future now that he's done with competitive League?" but it sounds like he just wants to go to school for a while and then get back into it?

Rachel: Basically that would be the plan! Him go to school now and then if the situation arises for him to go back into the pro scene then he would probably do that but it's all very situational. It depends a lot on what happens in the League of Legends scene in the next few years, because it's all really unstable right now. As for plans between the two of us, I'm staying on the East Coast for at least another year and then I might move out to California to start some schooling out there and continue my online stuff out in California to be closer to him. Other than that, we don't really have particularly set plans.

 

Any final remarks you would like to make, or shout outs?

Rachel: Well definitely shout outs to Bischu, or Aaron. I say this a lot, but I do really appreciate the fact that he gave me the chance to become friends with him in the first place and... I guess I just want to express how appreciative I am of him being in a relationship with me.  Also, I want to thank to C9T for letting me come along to their promotion matches! And Danan, or Kagniggit, who is their manager who also was part of allowing me to come along. And thanks to you, Bobby, for asking me for this interview in the first place.