Philadelphia Fusion Head Coach Yann “Kirby” Luu talks about the Su-min “SADO” Kim suspension in this exclusive interview. Check out his thoughts below.

Overwatchscore.com: Did the Fusion know about Sado’s boosting history before or after he was signed?

Yann “Kirby” Luu: We knew beforehand that SADO had allegedly been involved with boosting in some form, but we did not know the details. He made it clear to us that it was entirely behind him and he was regretful of his actions. So even if we did not know how things would shape up, we still think he was a worthwhile pick up because of how talented he is.

OWS: The team’s statement said that Sado’s character is not defined by his past mistakes. Can you talk a little bit about his character, what kind of person he is?

Kirby: All of this is fairly recent, so we don’t have a huge in-depth relationship yet. It is very apparent that he is thankful for this opportunity. He is very determined to prove to everyone that he is worthy of this second chance. He just really wants to compete.

OWS: The team’s statement also said that he persevered through tough circumstances. There are a lot of rumors going around as to what those might be, are you able to shed any light on what led him down the path to boosting?

Kirby: I don’t know if it is up to me to go into detail about that. I will say that his family was not in a great situation financially. He himself was not in a great place emotionally. I believe he had just quit high school. He did not feel like the opportunities in Overwatch would give him the chance to go pro. It seemed like things were not going anywhere, so he made a mistake. We don’t think that represents who he is as a person and he is very willing to prove it.

OWS: The preseason and three stages is an awful lot of matches. How did the league come to decide on that period of time, and do you believe that is a fair punishment to set for boosting?

Kirby: That was up to the League. It was their decision. It is very hard to say what is fair because the issue of boosting has not really been thought about too much. A lot of people have drawn comparisons to traditional sports, I don’t think that is a good comparison. Things happen differently in that world with suspensions. For us, it is the first step. It is a fairly harsh one, which is what they wanted to go for. Outside of that, I cannot really say too much more.

OWS: It seems like now future suspensions will be compared to this.

Kirby: It is definitely a precedent and then whatever happens in the future will be based on it for sure. For better or worse is it fair? That is a very hard question to answer.

OWS: How do you plan on replacing SADO’s productivity on the team for the portion of the season where he will not be playing?

Kirby: Well, we have this guy called Fragi (laughs), who is a pretty talented tank. He is a very reliable one. When it comes to games we are very confident in his ability to fill in everything we need based on his hero pool. Obviously, we are a bit less flexible with not having another main tank. We have a lot of talented players on the other roles on our roster and if we need an off-tank player to step it up I think we should be okay.

OWS: Will Sado be able to live and practice with the team during his suspension?

Kirby: The League has allowed him to be a part of this team in terms of him living with us and ability to practice with us in the facility. There are some more details on what he is allowed to do on gameday in terms of being backstage, that kind of thing. They have allowed him to be part of our team though, and we are very happy about that.

OWS: In traditional sports, many things like this get framed as ‘distractions.’ How do you keep your team focused on the preseason and training when one of their teammates is going through an incident like this?

Kirby: It’s true, it is a distraction. However, when you are at that level of competition anything outside the game itself is a distraction. For these pro players when they are on stage they need to ignore the crowd, ignore what is being said and just play the game. There are already individuals who are pretty good at that level of focus. We are not doing anything specific. We have to practice, we have to think about the game. Just keep things rolling on that front.

OWS: Do you have any other parting thoughts on the incident on behalf of yourself, SADO, or the Fusion?

Kirby: Ya, some of the response from the community is that they are disappointed in all of this. We hope that the people who are fans of the Philadelphia Fusion will stay because we have a lot of great talent and personalities among our players. We hope that in time, you guys will be able to see what we see in SADO, but it might take some time. We are very excited about every one of our players and that includes SADO.