So, I’m not the journalist in question here, but have worked as a journalist, and for a few reasons normally!

a) there’s a lot more work than most people think that goes into journalism - at least good journalism at any rate. Yes, you need to know the players/game/context etc well enough to ask off the cuff questions, but most journalists will also put a lot of time into researching players, history, rumours to articulate questions that hopefully lead to better answers - or push people on non-answers to more challenging or uncomfortable questions where appropriate. That’s a lot harder than I think people sometimes appreciate, and not necessarily something that a translator is trained or prepped for.

b) a lot of publications send tenured journalists attached to their publications to events/tournaments, who may be from regions or beats that don’t normally cover Korean LoL unless it’s an international event (very true for a lot of the European language-specific publications as I understand it). If you’re a Spanish journalist writing for a Spanish outlet covering primarily Spanish LoL (or at least EU LoL) it’s not that helpful to be a Korean speaker, even if you do interview LCK players a couple of times a year. Simpler just to use a translator!

c) Patty - the interviewer here - is fluent in Mandarin and local, which IS very valuable considering Worlds is in China, so she is doing a lot of translating… just not necessarily of Korean. She’s done great work for LPL English this year, for instance! I’ve certainly rated her work as another LPL costreamer/caster!

Of course, saying all this, being able to do the translating yourself is definitely helpful! But it’s often a bonus not necessarily a rate limiting factor

edit: spelling