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🇰🇷 South Korea /Sports

Two 18-year-old Pokémon Unite players aim to beat Japan and win Asian Games gold

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • South Korean Pokémon Unite players Park Seong-sun and Cho Min-hyeok, both born in 2008, will represent the country at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
  • The pair earned their places after their team won the national selection event in May.
  • They expect Japan, including world champion team Fennel, to be their strongest rival and are targeting the gold medal.

Park Seong-sun says he would even shave his head if South Korea wins gold. His teammate Cho Min-hyeok has a simpler goal: “The only goal is the gold medal.”

If we win the gold medal, I am even willing to shave my head.

— Park Seong-sunPark described how far he would go to celebrate a gold medal at the Asian Games.

The two 18-year-olds will represent South Korea in Pokémon Unite at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. They secured their places after their team won the national selection event in May. The roster also includes Kim Jae-young, Lee Ji-hwan, Jin Su-bin and Lee Sang, all from T1.

Both players said they never expected to wear the national flag so young. Cho said his family initially worried about the pressure, but encouraged him to treat the national-team place as an honor and produce a result worthy of it. He said he understood the weight of representing South Korea and wanted to avoid bringing shame to the title of national player.

The only goal is the gold medal.

— Cho Min-hyeokCho stated the team’s sole target for the Asian Games.

Pokémon Unite will make its Asian Games debut in 2026. Nintendo released the five-on-five team battle game in July 2021. Players score by defeating wild Pokémon, collecting Aeos energy and depositing it in goal zones. The team with the most points after 10 minutes wins. The players identify the fight over neutral monsters as a key viewing point, particularly in the final two minutes, when a defeated objective can provide a large shield and scoring boost and overturn a deficit of more than 300 points.

I never imagined that I would become a national player representing South Korea.

— Park Seong-sunPark spoke about his surprise at receiving a national-team place at age 18.

Their preparation is demanding. Park reviews practice-game footage from the previous day and trains for at least 10 hours, while Cho says he practices from 1 p.m. until 2 or 3 a.m. Both began playing because of an early love of Pokémon and moved from amateur competition into the professional game. Cho also described recovering from a slump by separating physical and decision-making errors through replay analysis. Japan is the opponent they fear most, with Cho highlighting its disciplined play, coordinated team fights and strong laning. Both South Koreans say they want to finish on the top step with the national flag raised above the podium.

I tried to separate the problems calmly into physical and decision-making aspects through replay analysis.

— Cho Min-hyeokCho explained how he worked through a slump and rebuilt his confidence.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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