Kim ”Kuki” Daekuk was born in Suwon, South Korea. Before his career as a pro-gamer took off Kuki completed his service in the Korean Special Forces. As most parents are, his parents also were against him wanting to become a pro-gamer. After seeing what he could do they became supportive. Kuki went from main-tank in Overwatch APEX to head Coach of the Florida Mayhem in the Overwatch League.
Career debut and going to OWL
Kuki’s started his Overwatch career in 2016 with MVP Space in APEX Overwatch Season one, three and four. After that, he was signed to the Seoul Dynasty for season one as their main tank, in which he played together with another well-known name in the Overwatch scene, Ryu ‘’Ryujehong’’ Jehong.
After the 2018 Season, Kuki got transferred to the LA Valiant where he was the main healer together with Scott ‘’Custa” Kennedy. It was rumoured that Valiant picked Kuki up because he is fluent in English so that the communication in the team would be better.
Right before the 2019 season ended he left the LA Valiant and retired as a pro player. When asked the question why he decided to retire, Kuki said: ”I decided to stop playing since I felt like I was too old to play anymore and I lost some confidence after my role change and straight losses etc.’’ He was planning to start his coaching career after he retired as a player. Kuki said during the interview he is confident with understanding the game and it felt like now is the right time for him to retire as a pro-player and come back as a coach.
Retirement and Coaching
In July 2019 Kuki joined the Korean Overwatch Contenders team RunAway as their coach. Kuki said he was planning on taking some time off after he retired but the Founder and Manager of RunAway, Yoon ‘’Runner” Daehoon, asked him if he would coach RunAway. ”I had a break for 3 weeks but, I was already eager to be back in Overwatch’’ Kuki said. With RunAway he achieved many victories and started off his career as a Coach.
In November 2019, the Florida Mayhem announced that they hired Kuki as their main coach. Asking him why he joined the Mayhem, Kuki said that ”A full Korean roster was a big benefit for me and it felt like Mayhem was a good team for me to be challenged.’’
Going into the 2020 Season
Fans are excited to see what Kuki will bring to the Mayhem. The answer to what Kuki’s thoughts are on the 2020 season were he hopes everyone can see a different Mayhem, and added ”I will do my best to show it to our fans.” #BringTheMayhem #LightItUp
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