TL APA: “I think just as a team [C9 is] very unconnected, no one’s trying to help eachother.”
Q: That series was wild, how are you feeling?
APA: Yeah, way easier than I expected. I expected at least a little bit of a brawl — four, five games maybe. But in the end, stoked with the result.
Q: Some people were saying C9 brought it back in scrims ahead of today, did it feel like that against them?
APA: From what I understand, all the LCS teams were scrimming LLA or NACL teams, so it’s kind of hard to not bring it back against those teams in scrims.
Q: Do you think those scrim partners affect any teams’ practice?
APA: As long as you’re practicing with a reason, which TL and I were, specifically. We were still focused on things we wanted to improve, scouting C9 and FLY the whole week, their [strategies] in situations.
Q: How much of your prep focused on FLY?
APA: It was like 80% C9, we were mostly on them, but if we made a side laning mistakes or something like that, we’d say “FLY will be able to do this here, so we have to still be aware”, but it was definitely focused on C9.
Q: Many people still favored C9 today, what do you think happened to make it a 3-0?
APA: We just played lanes better, I think just in general this entire split their mid game is pretty bad. Jojo and Blaber overgroup in mid lane, I got almost [3 towers] in top lane in game 2. They made a lot of mistakes like that this series, I think their side laning was pretty bad. I think just as a team they’re very unconnected, no one’s trying to help eachother.
Everyone’s playing individually for themselves, and they’re 5 very good individual players.
Q: Do you think you’re proving what TL saw in you to the doubters?
APA: I think a lot of what it’s based off is laning phase, which I’m definitely weaker at. This split, it’s taken me a while to get my foot in the door, but I don’t particularly care what they say.
Q: Many people would’ve said before that jojo is the best mid laner in the league, one of the best in the west —
APA: I don’t see it, but maybe others do.
Q: But you have confidence coming into tomorrow’s match against FLY, so talk your shit.
APA: I think we should’ve 3-1’d [FLY] last time, to be completely honest. Game 5 we should’ve won as well. I think I’ve just improved a lot since last time — we fought DIG, 100T, C9.
We’re a better team than last time, and I don’t think they’ve improved very much.
Q: This is your second international event out of two opportunities, how does that feel?
APA: Definitely feels insane, being 2 for 2 but also just going to two times in a row. Not many players can do that, and obviously I’m just starting in the LCS. It’s my first official split.
I made a joke to UmTi that I bring players to international tournaments. Last year, Summit had never been to a Worlds or MSI, we qualified to Worlds and that was his first time. This year, UmTi has never been to MSI and we qualified to it.
Q: Speaking of Summit, if he wins next week, you’ll have a chance to face him at MSI. With all of his comments about you, how do you feel about that matchup?
APA: Personally, I’m not thinking about it. Best of luck to him though, I think it’d be fun. But I’m focused on Sunday.
Q: Jensen has probably had his best performance ever in playoffs, how do you feel about that 1v1?
APA: I think Jensen doesn’t really pressure in lane. He’s very good at just neutralizing, but I think there are some flaws in that – he’s overall solid but I’m excited for tomorrow.
