New to the LCS: Getting to know Apex Gaming
By Andrew Ross
Apex Gaming are the newest members of the NA LCS, so it’s time to get to know them.
Yesterday was a great day for Apex Gaming.
The former challenger series team made it through the NA LCS promotion tournament by taking down Team Dragon Knights 3-0 to earn a spot for the upcoming summer split.
Making it onto the LCS means creating a bigger brand, and the team immediately started working towards that by having an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit. The AMA was supposed to be for Apex as a whole, but their coach, Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco, ended up answering all the questions (although, he did get answers for some questions geared towards the team).
The majority of the questions weren’t that serious, but some important information did come from the AMA. First off, the team will not be selling their LCS spot. This was something many people were worried about, but Saintvicious said multiple times that their spot will not be sold to anyone else. Next, no one from the roster will be removed, however, Apex will implement a 10-man roster (like Liquid did this year) and sub people accordingly. Finally, the team will soon head out to Korea where they will boot camp for a month.
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Here are some of the highlights from the AMA:
Q: What does Cris think about him being seen as a “Gatekeeper?”
A: Rather be the gatekeeper than the other guy.
Q: What’s the major difference between the Apex we saw today and the Apex we saw against TiP? Did TiP just play really well, or were there a lot of mistakes that you guys made?
A: Not really sure I could have drafted safe but we didn’t really play around objectives at all and I think after the triple kill level one in the first game some of the players tilted.
Q: Are you guys going to consider doing any changes [with your roster] or are you sticking with your players?
A: We won’t replace anyone but will sub players in and out of our ten-man roster.
Q: A lot of people think you will be the 10th place team. What’s your take on this?
A: We have scrimmed all of the teams in the LCS and can hold our own vs. any of them I think outside of Immortals. I believe after the boot camp in Korea and ten-man roster we will be more than ready.
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Q: You have proven yourself to be extremely knowledgeable of the pick-ban process and have done extremely well as a coach in best-of series. What is your secret in producing great pick-ban phases time and time again?
A: I believe prepping for every scenario and having answers as well as flexes helps a lot. It’s all about prep work and finding the right champion picks for the players. I play the game a lot (two challenger accounts and one master’s), so I see what is strong vs. what first-hand and know how it feels in game.
Q: Who wins…TSM or IMT?
A: Immortals
Q: To one of the Koreans on your team, how do you think you stack up against other players in your roles and what’s your opinion on Procxin, Ohq and kfo?
A: Police says he thinks he is a litter better than Ohq due to his weak champion pool and not playing Sivir, Jhin and Kalista on many of the games.
Q: Who is the best smiter on Apex between Saint, Eve and Shrimp?
A: Eve
Q: Who do you think is the sleeper OP in this meta?
A: Ryze
Q: When is Cris getting a new hairdo?
A: We scrimmed too much for him too. RIP.
Q: Saint, have you been allowing Keane to practice pocket off-meta picks in scrims?
A: How did you think we end up with Jarvan and Graves mid?
Q: You mentioned there would be a new challenger team under the Apex banner next split; do you know if you will be mainly coaching the LCS or the challenger team?
A: I’ll worth with both but we will hire a coach for the challenger team.
Q: What is it like to be working with Police?
“Police says he thinks he is a litter better than Ohq due to his weak champion pool…”
A: Police does his job, listens and is very hard working. His English is a little hard but we have a bilingual assistant coach (Bliss) who helps a lot.
Q: What are your plans between splits now that you’re promoted?
A: We will boot camp in Korea for a month.
Q: How is the house atmosphere?
A: Team atmosphere is very happy and light-hearted but serious when we need to be.
Q: Top five non-imported Lee Sin Players in NA?
A: Dardoch, Xmithie, Dominate, Meteos and not sure from there.
Q: What is your thoughts on Dynamic Queue and the impact it has on professional play?
A: Dynamic Q is fine outside of being matched vs. Diamond players as Challenger and five-man Q’s.
Q: I remember you saying in your stream that you were World’s-bound next split. Do you still feel that way even after struggling in that loss to TiP?
A: I think we can definitely make the push. That was an extremely bad day of play for us.
Q: Who do you think will win Korea?
A: ROX Tigers, of course.
Q: How did you feel about the team at the start of the season? Did you think it was a clear sign for them to be in the LCS?
A: I think we were very bad at the beginning, but most teams are.
Q: Why were you praising Eve so much on stream just to not let him play today?
A: I think Eve wasn’t ready for the play style we needed in this series. The last time we played TDS we put in Shrimp and he played a little stronger as well. They are both good junglers and we will use both.
Q: Coke or Pepsi
A: Diet Dr. Pepper
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