Episode 121: Virtus Pro Zachmazer + Pro League Day 3 & Regional Recap

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
What's up everyone? Welcome back to another edition of the
Apex the Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen. This is the premiere
podcast when it comes to APEX Legends Global series. We
are back. I'm here with Don, I'm here with Jumba.
We are chilling, fresh off of the third week of
Pro League, feeling very good. Lots of stuff to talk about,

(00:35):
lots of action to get to. Here. We're gonna go
through all the rankings and talk about mostly NA but
we are introducing a brand new segment after the interview.
It's called our Regional Roundup. We're gonna go through all
the other regions with Don and kind of go through
and talk about what's going on everywhere else around the league.
So let's check in with the boys real quick. Don,
how are you feeling? Then?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're doing good. Yeah, it's you know, maybe not necessary.
On a personal note for our team, for the nice guys,
didn't have the best week, but overall though, feeling good,
feeling excited with the land coming up, never a bad
thing to be looking forward to, especially going with all
the boys this year. But yeah, doing good.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Joe, But how are you feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Nice?

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Week needed ten thousand people to explain to him how
to use that ALGs website.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
That's how I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Can we please on a break for the love of God, man, Well,
no we can't, because we actually have a we have
a comment. We got to get to where you know somebody. Honestly,
we need to hire this guy I forgot. Let me
go find it real quick. We need to get this
guy on the pod because he's much better at doing
podcasts than I am. For certain, let me find it

(01:43):
real quick. So this one comes from Zam four thirty two.
F If you talk about a website on a podcast,
I think it's a smart idea to show the audience
on screen. Pretty basic. We got to get Zam. We
got to hire him. I didn't even think of that.
I didn't even think, are you like, maybe put the
webs side up? You got to hire him?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Being like sarcastic when you say that, like am I
because to be absolutely fair, Sam, that wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
I don't think a screenshot, That's what I'm I don't
think a screenshot would have hurt.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Listen, I'm not I'm not I'm saying we need to
hire this man. I'm saying we need to get him
on the show. I didn't even think of that. You know,
what I did think about was putting in that clip,
that stupid clip that we kept laughing about for fucking
forty five minutes about him telling Lou telling Slayer to
calm down about lag And I didn't think about putting
the fucking website on the screen. So, yeah, we got

(02:35):
to hire Zam. Sometimes that's that kind of stuff just
flies over my It actually probably would have been great
if we just had an entire like, we need to
hire it.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
We don't need the screenshot because my description rambling off
the different menus going from left to right, I thought
painted the picture very clearly. If you're someone who doesn't
watch the podcast but just listens, let us know if
my description was it was good enough for you, because
I think I thought it was.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
I think it was impeccable. I thought it was impeccable.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I thought it was.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
I tried to make it as confusing as the website
actually is. Okay, we won't talk about a website for
ten minutes again, Let's let's.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Not do that. Let's not do that. I just wanted
to see how you were. Leafs won game one. Shout out,
Oh that's.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Dude, like my like this podcast and my mood. I
just want you guys to know is every time I
come to the podcast, if I look sad, it's because
of what happened in the last Leafs game. If I
look happy, it's because of what happened in the last
Leaves game. So I'm doing good today, checking with me tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
There we go, There we go. Okay, without further ado,
Let's get into the action here, because last last week
we did talk about a website for about ten minutes.
It was about it. It was about ten minutes. Let's
get straight into the action here. Pro League Day number three,
our winner was Shopify Rebellion. They had one hell of
a day, but it was a close one. It kind
of came down to the final game here, NRG in

(03:52):
second place, Vertus Pro in third, and then nine Lives
in fourth. Now nine Lives, we'll talk about them in
a moment. They were pretty high up on the list
for most of the day. A bad second half of
the day kind of like slowed them down. But you know,
fourth place is a fourth place. We're gonna take that
all day long. If you're nine lies. Going through the
rest of the rankings here, we had Fusion at fifth,

(04:13):
Purple Slushy at sixth, Spectory Sports at seventh, Empire at eighth,
Furia at ninth, and then CTE rounding out your top ten,
some notable teams throughout the bottom of the list. It
was kind of flooded heavily with some big name teams
that you expect to do well. We had one hundred
Thieves at eleventh. We had Envy at thirteenth, Complexity at sixteenth,

(04:36):
and then Luminosity all the way down there at eighteenth.
So some big name teams struggling in that Pro League
Day number three. Let's kick it off first here with
our winners, because Shopavy deserves the shine. And I think
the only way you can really describe how this team
did so well is cohesion. That's what this team is

(04:56):
from top to bottom. It is cohesion all the way through,
and then you add in a little bit of Koiful
going absolutely berserk, nuclear sicko mode, it just proves to
be one of the best teams in the league. I
talked to Donnie a little bit before the season started
when the Reddit rankings came out and I thought they
were disrespecting Shopify a little bit, and I talked to
Donnie about it a little bit. I know, it's like

(05:17):
voted on by you know, everybody who's in the reddit,
so there's gonna be you know, some bigger name team's
gonna you know, go above. And it's not like they
were super low. But I just feel like this team
was being a little bit slighted here and it showed
on today they were They were absolutely impeccable. I'll start
off with you down, what do you see from Shopify
that's so impressive?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean again, I think the expectation we have for
this roster, with the three players that are there, is
that we do expect them to play well. Right Like
it's I don't think it's any shock that they're gonna
in first place, and nobody should be surprised that they're
doing well. We just obviously saw their Week one performance
and kind of were like, okay, what you know, are
they kind of adjusting to the legend bands? These are
kind of some things that they're still trying to figure

(05:58):
out on the back end, since there's a lot that
kind of change between Champs and and what we got
with Pro League now. But obviously they returned to form
this week. Again, we plenty of highlights and clips, Koyful
leading the leading the lobby ofly with nineteen kills I
believe was the amount that he ended up with. But overall,
again it's just it's a very complete team. You can
see it top to bottom, from the igl down to

(06:21):
their frackers refrack. I mean it just it's it was
a complete performance. I get every each and every game
it seemed like in one way, shape or form, they
picked up some for of some form of good points.
I think they only had one game again, kind of
like Falcons did last week where they only had like
a three or four point game, but other than that,
they did very well each game at least picking up
some sort of respectable amount to add to when they

(06:42):
get that big pop off game. Uh, they just have
those totals to add to it.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
So again, I.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Think it was game three that they ended up winning,
or no, excuse me, it was game five they ended
up winning, doing a great job where it felt like
Energy kind of had the game winning spot Shopify did
a really good job of stalling and getting some KP
but then also doing a great job picking up ankles
on NRG to end up winning the game and winning
that last fight so overall, again, I think definitely something

(07:10):
we could expect from this roster. And again I think
if they're not considered one of the land potential champions,
I think somebody is not paying attention. But I definitely
think there's a lot a lot of good things with
this roster. And again, it just starts with how complete
of a skill set each of those players have.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, it was really impressive to watch from top to bottom.
I went through and watched every single game just to
kind of see what was making this team go on
the particular day, and one thing I noticed that jumped
right out in front of you is how well they're, like,
how cohesive their comms are. It is very impressive to
see how good everything is. They do have those moments

(07:50):
in the middle of fights where you know, everybody's kind
of screaming going back and forth, but not to the
level that I've seen some other teams around the league.
This team has everything kind of locked down, and I
don't think it can be overstated how impressive Ziinu is
as well. You like, mt is obviously the IGL on
this team, but Zaiinu provides so much solid input throughout

(08:11):
the entire set. The entire day. He never stops talking.
There's even moments where empty kind of goes I wouldn't
say he goes silent, but he's kind of like figuring
out what he's gonna do from his perspective, his angle,
making sure everything's going right for them, and so zai
Nu will start giving feedback, He'll start throwing out some calms.
Maybe we try this, maybe we try that. It's super

(08:31):
impressive to listen to, and he also balances out just
the team's I don't know energy as well. There was
a moment where Koy goes down trying to loot a box.
It was early games, so they were able to get
him back up, and you know, they're kind of getting
on him a little bit, like hey, you can't do
that right now, and Cooy kind of gets frustrated back

(08:52):
at them, and then Zenu is able to calm him
down in like the most perfect manner I've ever seen,
Like it just instantly tensions relaxed, It was all calm.
Everything was great. And I think when you're in a
situation that they're about to be in in the open,
you need guys like that, and you need moments like
that to make sure everybody can stay locked in for
the amount of games that they're going to be playing.
So very solid from Zinu, very impressive from Zenu, and

(09:14):
I just felt like overall the entire day, their comms
were just perfect, perfect the whole day. JUMPA, did you
have anything, Dad, I mean.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
Like if I hopped in on what you were saying there,
it's kinda I don't know how to word this. I
feel like Zinu somewhat comes off as like underrated. And
the reason I say that is because I don't think
people talk enough about how much Zienu should be regarded,
like with those like top players in the game, like
when I'm I'm literally thrown out named like zero, how

(09:44):
like fucking the goats, Because like you said, I think
Zienu in a short time really like I don't know,
like like he came into like a very strong commanding
role on his team's on that second land, and like
you said, like his calm when you watched when he
first started off like phony and Frecks were a little
bit the whole team was a little bit all over

(10:05):
the place, but like he really like shaping shaping it
up going on throughout the year and just became a
lot more Uh.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I guess like focused, like like director, there's.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
A certain points is when it comes to these hectic
moments for sure.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, yeah, I guess that's like the way to like
to put it. And it's just it's been really impressive
and like that once that came into shape, like his
mechanics were always there. He's got the ability to IGL
but he's not the IGLS team.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
I think he's one of the best in the world
right now. And yeah, and that's.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Why everything Donnie said, like I wouldn't even have to
repeat or dive deeper.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Like the thing.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
The reason why people are almost seem so surprised, like
when Shop Fi comes first or like maybe they're not
rated hires is because of the fact that the expectations
of the squad is that they are like land favorites
to win, right, Like you really do have like your alliances,
your falcons, your Shop five rebellions. At least that was
the top three teams in Jape.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, so that's it.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, it was. It was really cool to watch and
I love the word you said there, Donnie, with just
being poised in those moments. I think his favorite calm
throughout the entire day is like, hey, stay calm, stay calm, relaxed,
relax like he's constantly trying to make sure actually, no,
it's slowed down. Does everybody slow down a lot? And
I think that actually really helps out. It sounds so simple,
but it really does help them out in a lot

(11:23):
of key moments, and even when things go bad, they're
able to kind of bounce back in a way that
it almost feels like he's the bridge between the other
two to make sure that no tensions reach the boiling point.
And he does it very well. And I mean he's
won two lands already as young as he is. Having
that sort of ability to keep everything emotionally connected while

(11:48):
also being one of the best just players out there,
it's a dangerous combination and it's really showing recently and
it's super impressive. So jump by what you're saying, like
putting him up there with some of the greats already,
I don't think is that crazy. I mean, Jay came
on the pod before Japan and he had said like
he might be the best player in the league. So yeah,
it's it's super impressive what he's doing right now. But

(12:09):
that went out.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'll say real quick too, just for people if they
want to see an example of what we're talking about,
go back and watch Game six. They don't end up
winning that game, but they come on to the very
far side of zone and have a ton of traffic
in front of him, and you can just see how
well they communicate where teams are at, what their plan
is going to be. So when the chaos does happen,
they end up clearing out about two or three teams

(12:30):
on that side to even give themselves an opportunity to
try to walk into his zone. Because they take a
fight on one team and they end up getting some
KP everything, they end up swinging back to another side,
end up clearing out some KP and then Koy absolutely
just pops off unfortunately on our boy Berks team. But
that kind of moments are examples of what this team
can do and the in the moments of chaos. Like

(12:52):
I said, the poise they have the communication, they have.
All the great teams have it. But for a team
that isn't necessarily you know, again, everyone thinks of Falcons
first or Alliance first, but I think a team that
should be in that conversation every single time, it's got
to be this team with the Poise and the ability
they have.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
You know what, I'm gonna throw that clip in because
it doesn't just show their poise and and their ability
to colm, but it also shows the absolute skill that
koyfl has. I'm gonna throw that clip in right now.
Check this out real quick, because it's super impressive he's playing.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
So let's fight them.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Look, yeah, I know it's that's inside.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
Can you can you find me for no?

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I mean I'm so safe. I'm gonna assume, yeah you can.
I'm gonna.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
I think we still they're right now? Do you want
to like what? I like? Right? I like right, I'm gonna.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Let's joke.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
I'm just gonna go fighting.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
I'm find him.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
See, let's take a fees old. I think what you
gonna get it?

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Put nothing else? And then you know what they're looking
guys looking casts from it. Yeah, I'm gonna swack in.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
You're walking in.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, we gotta get to the pitch where we in?
We play here?

Speaker 1 (14:16):
I'm play, yeah, play here.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
You're playing?

Speaker 5 (14:18):
You look left?

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Let Fredy left playing left?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Flakes jump brin, I'm sup, Hey, stop what's up forbody? Stop?
One stipt the dead press?

Speaker 5 (14:27):
No, I size I U right? Look if you a
right tune, when the right trou's coming, I'm.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Gonna take them up to pick them. I got see
my cost him.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
I'm do it on it.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
I can't truck for a while for finding.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
I don't want per don't work for Tony.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
You all right, way hot right, I'm gone much. I'm this,
I'm muching this looking at mass They're gonna rest. Don't
do this.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
I don't want to smok for a while.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
Bro does an he keep on top of such up,
Hold hold this, three, hold the snake stick.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Three.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
He's like three fucking three. Wait wait, goine wan one second,
goin co Kyls, come up.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
I'm not saying.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
It's OK.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
That's the other thing about Shopify two that I've noticed
a lot is Empty can kind of set the two.
They're like the Bash brothers. Empty will be sitting in
drone and he'll just send Koiful and Zainu out and
they'll just go on missions together, while while Empty is
just watching from the top, being like, okay, they're over here,
go kill them. They kill them, Okay, now go over here,
go kill them. Their entire e district was basically that.

(15:45):
I mean, there was like two games where they were
just running around and just getting all the kills because
they're so gifted, but they also have the comps to
do it. So shout out to Shopify Rebellion. It was
a hell of a hell of a performance from them
this week, and they they definitely deserved that first place.
Let's move on into energ Here boys, Energy. They did
not have the best first day and it was a

(16:06):
little bit there's some rumblings. I'm not gonna say people
were outright saying like this is gonna work, but there
was definitely some rumblings like what I mean this the
squad kind of came out of nowhere. Nobody was really
expecting it. Timmy didn't have the best showing the first
time around, so how is this gonna work? And they
get a second place? They shove it right back where
everybody was saying it from so from Energy your guy's

(16:29):
perspective on Energy, Uh, Jamba, I'll go first with you.
This roster, once again, we had talked about it the
first time. I don't it was we're kind of trying
to figure out like what is this team? What what
are they? Who are they? But this week they come
out and they have a banger day what'd you see
from the NRG perspective, Well, I.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Mean, like game three, they drop a nuke thirty two points,
twenty kills. As I was watching that game back, like
it's kind of crazy. I think it's like round four,
their entering and they have one kill at that time,
and then Guild gets full killed and dies and they
have to go for the revive, and mid revive, both
Timmy and Yanya go down and managed to get out

(17:08):
because the team that was killing that killed them gets
a third party, and then Guild full resets, they get
to kill there and they get the height just outside
of city Hall, and then it just becomes like fucking
target practice for three insanely mechanical players as they clean
up every player on the low ground and drop twenty
total gills. I think, like what the thing is like

(17:30):
a lot of like like you're saying, like if anyone's saying,
like what is this team? I think it's just a
team that has to find their form with Timmy getting
like uh, you know, like practice and reps under his
belt with iglling because like I said, like, you know,
thirty two points in a pro league dy is no joke.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
So it's a team that obviously, like if they do have.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
That opportunity, they can strike and they will and you know,
so it's just maybe like more of like a time
and experienced thing for Tim. But I'm excited to see
like how they play at the land now, like because
they're gonna be an exciting team. And I mean any
team Guild is on, in my opinion, is always a contender.
So yeah, especially Yanya too that both those guys have
finished top five at several lands.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, and don when I throw it on down to you,
I think one comparison that I look at, not really
with Energy as a whole, but more just Timmy is
you kind of get that Zach Maser effect at times
where there's sometimes a lot of inconsistency, but when they're on,
or when he's on, he is absolutely on. And I
think sometimes that's what's happening with Energy and just Timmy

(18:32):
in general. Am I off base with that or where
are you kind of seeing Energy and where they're coming from?

Speaker 2 (18:39):
No, I mean, I definitely think it's a different kind
of style when it comes obviously to Zach, But I
do see the comparison where there is those inconsistencies, but
they're their ceiling is so high that it's just like
you you know, you know that version of that team's there,
it's just is it gonna come out on that certain day?
And I think it's one of those things that everybody,
you know, no one's ever touch and Timmy is just

(19:01):
individual mechanical skill the game. He's obviously one of the
best at it. It's just that decision making, right, Like
you know, he had this period of time where he
didn't play competitive where a lot of people kind of
gain those extra experiences as igls. He's still relatively fresh
when it comes to igling teams. I know he's done it,
you know, a couple times here and there, but it
really hasn't been like a consistent pattern with consistent players,

(19:22):
so you always are kind of having to try to
change and adapt and do these different things. And I
think at the end of the day, it's you know,
how long does it take for them to shape up
to the best version of themselves? Is really what the
questions could ultimately be. The thing I'm most curious about
what they decide to do is that I'd noticed in
at least in this match day. It'll be interesting to
see if it continues to be this way. But in

(19:44):
these early games when there's like the Newcastle and the
Cat and play, we only saw them pick up about
eight to nine points. But then when those two characters
are getting ruled out, they immediately go thirty two points
running a Crypto alter Fuse. Then they switch over to
Crypto ash Few they drop eight points in that game.
The next game after that to bang Fuse Crypto it's

(20:05):
thirteen points. So I'm really curious kind of when these
more kind of sit down find a spot in zone
type characters start to get weeded out early on, with
like I said, the Cat in the Newcastle, if they
do end up taking advantage of that, when the lobby
could potentially get a little bit more aggressive, because I
know typically like the Newcastle, play will slow things down,

(20:25):
and they're a team that when they're at their best,
I got to play it a very fast tempo. So
I'll be really interested to see if that's something that
comes into play as we continue in this legend band
system for them.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
That's a pretty good point because Timmy's always been like
it was even I think I think a thing that
him and Design will kind of clashed on is that
Timmy likes to be kind of like really aggressive and
go for high risk, high reward situations, which those sit
down in zone situations don't really like, you know, present

(20:55):
many opportunities of and watching them with the Crypto was hilarious.
I mean, like every team when they played Crypto or
experiencing this, right, but you know, especially with the P
twenty meta and the accelerator, Timmy fucking few will Crypto
alt won to the team. And then you got Yanya
and Gill who can go in and swing and just
you know, absolutely shred that fucking team. And every assist

(21:17):
he gets, he's getting either like all charge from the accelerator, right,
you just need assists, and that's what the cryptolt does.
So like they can kill all three players that are
stunned by themselves, and Timmy might have like eighty percent
of his alt charge back, or Timmy gets in the
fight and he gets even more. So like, yeah, there
was that one fight where they had to reset revive
Timmy and Yanya and then they get back up on

(21:39):
the height they push the other team. Yeah, Timmy Crypto
alts them and by the end of the fight he
has eighty percent Crypto back. He has an alt Exel
and he immediately has Cryptolt for the next fight. He
doesn't immediately use the alt in that situation, but like
if he had to, he could have. I think I
talked about it like last week or something like that. Yeah,
with Rambo where Hambino Crypto all did two teams without

(22:03):
leaving his drone, so kind of crazy with the situation there,
and that's stuff we saw when Crypto was really met
in Germany, like how much he promoted actually edge play
style and like going for aggressive kills. So it's something
that team could probably really thrive with.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, I'll be interested too.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
Real.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
One last thing is that I think typically if people
had to pick between Yannia and Guild, who they expect
to be kind of more of that front line player
because they've run, you know again, they have the Altar,
they got the ass, they got the bang throw in there.
I think more people probably would have picked they thought
would be Yanya playing that, But it's been Guild that's
been playing those characters. So I'll be really interested to
see if that's a trend that continues, because I think

(22:41):
a lot of people have been seeing Yanya on like
Newcastle and being like what is going on, why is
this guy on Newcastle? But if Guild is able to
do the job on these alter bang Ash characters and
they continue to half days like this, and then Yanya
is able to lock in the Fuse and get really
good at Fuse. Because in their big game three, which
they had thirty two point to twenty kill win, Ghani

(23:02):
was playing Fuse and had the most kills and had
twenty three hundred damage, right next to Guild having five
kills and twenty six hundred damage. So that dynamic seems
to be working at least on this day, and if again,
if that's something that's continued, we might see a different
side of Guild than we've really ever seen because I
think no one questions the talent obviously, but it she'll
be very interesting to see him more frontlining, I think
than we ever have before. So that'll be a really

(23:23):
interesting dynamic to see if that continues at the Land
and into par league as well.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, so that is energy as it stands right now.
They bounce back, and they needed a big bounce back.
That's what they got. Let's move into the third team here,
and this is Vertus Pro. We talked a lot about
vertis Pro last week, but I just want to reiterate
they get a third place here. Today I went back
and watched once again. I'm just super impressed with Lou.
I know I already said it last week. Another week

(23:48):
where once again I'm like watching listening and it reminds
me of Zionu was Shopify. It's almost the exact same role.
It's like they almost play the exact same role. They
are a right hand man to the IGL, but in
a way where it's like so important to that igl's
ability to make calls and do things because it's not
like they're just gonna be a pushover and just say

(24:09):
yes to everything. They're gonna give feedback, and they're going
to give feedback that they think is going to help
the team overall. And it sounds weird to say, but
I don't think every single team has a guy who's
like that. In fact, I feel like a lot of
teams are missing a guy like that. So it's super
impressive to watch. And then obviously we already know the skill.
I've watched Louse so much. Now with Complexity with l
Animals and now Here with VP, they're quickly becoming one

(24:32):
of my favorite teams to watch and I always seem
to find a team every season, every split where I
end up just watching them more than others because I'm
intrigued by how the team dynamic works. And I think
VP strikes me in a weird way because I remember
when this team at first kind of started before they
were VP, where it was Zach Maser, Luxford and Slayer
and they just had some of the worst days you

(24:53):
could possibly imagine, followed up by a day where they
absolutely pop off. And I think Slayer is another key cog,
a key catalyst to why things were doing good while
they were doing well this week as well, because last
week Slayer wasn't saying a whole lot. Now he did
get yelled at for lagging, so I understand, I get it.
But this week he was a lot more vocal and

(25:16):
in a way and not lagging, and he was he
was vocal in a way that I really felt like it.
It almost took after a little bit what Lou was doing,
and he was he was making these like different calls
and being like what about this, what about that? Why
don't we do this, why don't we do that? Even
in the post game when they had games where it
didn't necessarily go the way they wanted it to. He

(25:37):
was still giving his input, his feedback, where I feel
like I didn't see that happen as much when he
was playing with LG. Maybe that's because he's, you know,
a little bit newer and sweet. You don't really know exactly,
you know, you're still trying to get your footing in
the league. But now I feel like he has a
different kind of confidence with him. He's got a little
bit different of a swagger, and he had a play

(25:57):
on Broken Moon where, first of all, that entire game
for them was absolutely nuts. Zach calls it perfectly. At
one point, Lou and Slayer are saying, hey, what are
we doing? Do we We should just try to evac
and get a spot in zone. Zach goes, hell, no,
we're so far from zone. It's not gonna work. We
might as well just get as much KP as we
possibly can and then see where we can, Like, if
we can try to get a spot later on, there's

(26:17):
already gonna be however, many teams inside the zone. Let's
try to get kills. It's exactly what they do, and
then they end up getting a banger spot inside zone.
They go down as Washington scores the overtime game winner
Alexandrovchkin of course, but as they get into zone, Zach
goes down, Lou goes down. Slayer is by himself. There

(26:39):
are like three teams looking at him. He hides behind
a staircase, hits about five vertinades, knocks I think Furia,
and he gets I think an extra two KP in
a spot where they were absolutely not gonna win that game.
I think Shopify ends up winning that game. Energy had godspot.
They kind of fumbled it low key, but they end
up getting some extra points there. All three of them

(26:59):
put together are making this team go. And Lou tweeted
out something I think yesterday or today where he was
just like, I'm just very thankful to be a part
of this team and to be doing as well as
we are with the teammates that I have, And I
think it's because they all know they have something special
going right now. We'll get to the standings here in
a little bit, but they are currently sitting atop the

(27:19):
league in NA in Pro league, so it's impressive to watch.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
Man.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
I'm really enjoying watching this VP team, and I think
they're slowly becoming one of my favorites, and like the
teams I'm going to be looking out for the most
in New Orleans. Don you have anything else to follow
up on with VP?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, I think you did a great job talking about it,
So I think the only thing that I'll add is
it's very interesting that a lot of people complain about
them getting those zones last week, whereas this week they
were still playing Foundry and had two zones that pulled
away from them on Broken Moon, and they still get
thirty eight of their forty nine points. So they score
on the day on Broken Moon with two zones pulling
to the little opposite corner of the map. So for

(27:58):
those that complained last week, you know, the game works
in mysterious ways sometimes, and the opportunity to prove themselves
this week that they were able to show that, hey,
we can play from the other side of the map.
We can still ball out. So Broken Moon, for a
map that is obviously very new to competitive VP, might
be finding a groove on that map, which if you
can do that at least on a you know, one

(28:20):
or two maps, you feel really good about him. That
could really lead you to go very far in these
tournaments where you're gonna see multiple maps a day. So
uh yeah, big shout out to them. Been awesome to
see and hopefully they continue to moving forward.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, so that was.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
I thought you're gonna ask me, and I was gonna
be like, not, Donnie put it perfect, Like I can't
say anymore.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
No, I really will. I mean, I think we talked
about him so much last week too, where it's like
we kind of just regurgitating the same things. But it
is really impressive because last week the only thing you
could say was they got zones. This week they didn't
get zones and they still managed to get third place.
So at a certain point you just have to tip
your cap and be like, hey, I think they're just
in good form right now, and that's exactly where they're at.
So on top of that, we had a lot of

(29:02):
other teams around the league that didn't do as well,
as well as some some prize teams that were in
that like good upper echelon area. I kind of wanted
to give you guys an opportunity to talk about one
team that you were kind of impressed by. I'll start
off with you down. There's plenty of unsigned rosters here
that did well, but also some teams that you kind

(29:23):
of know and have been watching closely. Is there any
that stand out to you?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, I think we give credit where credit is due
with Nine Lives. I think that them coming out and
winning the first two games definitely proved that they got
a lot of good things going on within that team.
Obviously they have a great igl with a ton of
experience with Vain, but I also Surcey and McLevin doing
a great job coming in and really kind of getting
I think their first true real pro experience and doing

(29:51):
a great job this week. For those who haven't seen it,
and again, it's one of the craziest clips I've probably
ever seen. To win a game, I think by literally
a pixel on and like one health uh SSA ends
up winning a crazy one v one against Omnu to win.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Is that the they traded?

Speaker 2 (30:07):
I think they Yes, they literally traded, but again by
like the one pixel I guess with that trade, his
bullet just happened and end up hitting him earlier. It's again,
it's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I
think you have to because people have to see that.
It's it's one of the crazy things I've seen. But yeah, why,
I'm sure you'll you'll get that thirty.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, let's throw the clip in right here so people
can see it, because it was pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (30:29):
There's all three up. Kind of crazy when you've got
purple slushy down to a du one hundred thieves just
behind the mobile shield looking to heal up if they can,
the three B two B two and Nick Lovin trying
to take down a fortress BRANDI Gerol trying to get

(30:49):
up on the top three.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Here too, Nine Lives Fang going down.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Started saving the last one here to keep the trade.

Speaker 5 (30:55):
For nine Lives, but another great look for nine Lives.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Now it's almost he's literally not getting glug. You can
no get the Nine Lives. They do it again and.

Speaker 5 (31:08):
Such a don't want pixel of health moment.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Nine Lives take game number.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Two with the back to back, but overall, like I said,
it was a really good job by them again coming
out the I think the biggest thing for these teams
that aren't necessarily you know, the shopify as the Falcons.
The biggest thing you can do on these Pro League
day days is start off hot and start early and
be able to come out and win those first two games,
especially when there was a restart involved as well, where
they can definitely throw off your momentum. I think is

(31:34):
a great testament to just the solid job that this
roster has done. And again, I don't believe they had
maybe necessarily the best first day, but showing up and
doing a great job here getting fourth overall again just
put them in a really good spot. I believe they're
in the top ten now overall on Pro League for ANA,
which yeah, they're sitting eighth now, so yeah, big shout

(31:56):
out to them. Great job and again, hope to see
more of them moving forward or jump.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
But did you have a team that stood out to you?

Speaker 4 (32:03):
You know, I just want to shut out my boys
over at Fusion. I gotta actually get Burke to introduce
me to those guys. I've never talked to Trev's tacking
those dudes, But you know Burke, we've talked about him
a handful of times. Our our buddy, you know who's
coaching that team now. They just locked in fifth on
the day while also being put on an absolute fucking
poster by koy Full.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
For those who For those who don't know that clip
we showed earlier that was unfortunately our boy.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, unfortunately that's his squad, that's Burke's team. Uh but yeah,
like you know, other than that, like sick day fifth
and you know, it might be too early to tell,
but they got fifth in game four, five and six
to finish the day off in fifth.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Could they be the bleed of twenty twenty five new bleed?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Some are saying, let's start the rumor now. Some are saying,
we found the new bleed.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
We'll have to see because they didn't get fifth last week,
but if they continue to get fifth or six throughout
the rest of ro Lean Land, could.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Be that's a big money if they get fifth overall. O.
But I'm just saying that man's picking up a beer,
a bar tab or two. If they get fifth at.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
The Open, that's gonna be the say Birk's paying for
the airbnb.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
We we do have to say too, though, that the fifth,
sixth place thing does belong to Drops, like that's that's his,
you know, that's his. So like if he ends up
getting fifth or sixth again, I mean we got to
give it to him. You know, it's always going to
be Drops thing that he was always getting just fifth
or sixth, So we have to we have to give
it to first fair Man. Yeah, I can.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
I can deal with that one.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah. Yeah. I'll talk about my final team that I
wanted to speak about here on the Pro League day,
which was Complexity. Another another. I would say this is
tougher than than their last showing because there was a
twentieth place. I think there was a nineteenth place as well.
Just two really bad games, and I just I think
sometimes when you look at a bunch of names and

(33:58):
you put them together, you say, that sounds really good,
because that's exactly what they were needing. And when you
look at Complexity, you're like, what do they need? They
need a little bit more firepower. Who do they go get?
They go get Funk, and you're thinking, that's perfect, man,
That's exactly what they needed. They just needed to get
a little bit more kills. But like, sometimes the names
just don't necessarily mesh and they don't necessarily mix. And

(34:20):
I'm not saying it can't work, but at least through
the first two days, it just hasn't been what you
would have expected. With Funk on the roster, They're just
not getting the kills that they've been looking for. There's
been a little bit it's just been a little bit
disjointed with how they're pushing in different ways. I guess

(34:40):
it just feels like the plans just haven't been crisp enough,
and we got to figure out what's going to go
down with complexity. Because once again, like Mon and Kim
Sheher are two of my favorite players. Like interviewing them
some of my favorite times, and I love watching them
at Land in Japan. When they won that game, I
about passed out of excitement. So it's like I want

(35:01):
to see them do well. Just right now, it seems
like they almost need to pull on the reins a
little bit more on Funk, just keep them a little
bit closer. Obviously, with a guy with that much talent,
you want him to be out there getting kills and
like getting entry. I just think right now, with the
way they're trying to do it, there might just be
a little bit too much space in between them and Funk.
And then also sometimes when they're trying to fly in

(35:23):
and get these these you know, these spots, just seems
like a little bit too late. It just seems like
they're getting those spots a tad too late, and it's
costing them in some of these games, so we'll see
how it goes. I mean, I've seen Complexity battle back
from some tough spots before. Currently they're sitting way down
below on the standings here, so they're gonna need a
couple good days to like really bounce back, but they

(35:45):
have the talent to do so. So I'm just hoping
we see that from from the Complexity boys. But that's
basically it, ladies and gents from NA Pro League day
number three, and that's gonna be our last day at
least until the open is done. So as we sit
right now, I feel like we got to go through
the standings and talk about where everybody is at. Currently

(36:06):
in the number one overall standings we have it didn't
switch hold on. Currently in the number one standings we
have Vertice Pro VP. Like I mentioned earlier, they are
currently sitting number one in NA with thirty nine points.
Right behind them is Shopify Rebellion at thirty six, thirdest

(36:27):
Team Falcons, fourth one hundred Thieves, fifth Team Liquid, sixth,
huss seventh and r G eighth, Oblivion ninth, nine Lies, tenth, Envy, eleventh,
Twisted Minds, and twelfth THEORYA. So that would be the
twelve teams going to split two playoffs, not split one
to open. Everybody's going there, but that would be twelve

(36:48):
going to split two as it stands right now, So
shout out to those teams. Still a lot of Pro
League left to be played, but that is where we
are so far, Ladies and gents. We're gonna go on
down to our interview real quick, and then after that
we're gonna get into our review of some of the
other regions and then our heart to heart. Let's get
it all right here. We are, ladies and gents, with

(37:12):
a very special guest for the first time on I
checked the date. The last time we had him on
was almost three years ago. Zach Maser back on the pod, Zach.
It was crazy listening back to that interview and seeing
how far you've come from that, Zach to this Zach now.
But man, how are you feeling right now? Currently sitting
number one in Pro League with your boys at VP?

(37:35):
How are you feeling that?

Speaker 5 (37:36):
Feeling good about it? Like, obviously we're only two leads
into it. You know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
We are winning the sprint right now. That is an
accomplishment in itself. You know, being the first seed in
the world going into the upcoming land it is a
big deal. Doing to downplay it, but also want to
be able to succeed through the rest of the season
and finish top three ideally first.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, and it hasn't just been you know, you guys
getting number one Pro League obviously support you guys get fifth,
And I feel like you guys are just in prime
form right now, feeling good, feeling great as far as
the last couple of months have been for you with
everything going on with the Final, getting ready for the
Open Pro League, all that kind of stuff, It's got
to be a lot of different changes, moving parts, all
this kind of you know, everything moving around with the Open.

(38:20):
How are you feeling as far as just yourself like
within the team and where you feel that you're at
with your calls and everything like that as the IGL.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
For for VP, Yeah, I mean I feel like I'm
definitely like ten times the player that I was last
time you guys had me on the podcast. Definitely definitely,
like you know, I've definitely come into like a higher
echelon than I was before. Definitely from like Baterview and
just you know, playing the game more and trying to

(38:50):
look at it from like a different angle. Again, my
job as an IGL, it's all about understanding the game
and make a certain decision and what the outcomes could
be and what's most likely to find. So I mean,
if you're struggling with that, the only thing you can
is just look at others that are, you know, making
those right decisions. Try to learn. Honestly, I'd give a
lot of credit to Slayer and Lou though I think

(39:11):
Slayer is I think Slayer and myself but more Slayer
than even me, are like or like criminally underrated. I
think people don't realize how good we are. Lou is
obviously one of the best players in the world right now.
You could make an argument that he's like a top
three more valuable player in the world. So I think
we'll get like the whole mix together of like someone
like Slayer who like really understands his role on a team,

(39:33):
just tries to hone in on his role. He doesn't
try to be a superhero, right and then myself, who
I mean, I can I can throw games, and I
can get a little mixie every now and then, but
I try to hold it down and we have Lou,
who's just a super insane fragger. It's a it's a
good mix.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, we actually talk about it on the pod quite
a bit where you know, obviously people love the jokes,
the Mazer moments, everything like that that bring them up,
but we talk about often that when you're on, you're on,
like your calls in the way that you you know,
can obviously have the macro plans, but the micro like
the way you direct your teams to certain positions is
just kind of top tier with the best of the

(40:12):
best out there. What is it that like has been like,
like you said, like now that you've got Slayer Lou,
you guys are one of the few teams that stuck
together after Japan that like has helped you succeed in
your role in helping your team with you know, the
first place overall in Probablyue right now in the first
two days.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
Yeah, Well, first off, the boys are screaming right now.
So if you hear any yelling or anything that's them.
I think it almost came through my mic before, but
it is. You're gonna hear Re screaming about his teammates
or something. Probably, But I made a mistake many many
years ago we all know about it. For the new
viewers that don't know about it, it was with I
was on C nine. I basically won that regional chance,

(40:54):
and I made a roster change that wasn't a good one.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Yeah, for justice not moment.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Yeah, And since then, I've really tried to learn from
that mistake. And if something's not broke, don't fix it.
I mean obviously, I mean we could have that conversation.
There is a conversation there, right. There was a huge
free agency recently. I'm sure I could have gotten players
like verhol Store, some of these top echelon players, you know, Verholes,

(41:22):
Jim Burton, these players definitely would have showed a lot
of interest in VP if our doors were open. Obviously,
behind the scenes conversations happened, and you have an idea
for who they would have went for if the hypothetical
has worked out, right, But again, if it isn't broke,
don't like it's yeah whatever, It's just we have a

(41:43):
good thing going. I don't want to mess with that.
And we're definitely a tournament team. We get absolutely fricking
pounded in scrims. We just we just laughed through it,
have a good time. We take it serious, but not
too serious that it like destroys our team. Then on
game day we show up and like, like you said,
like my ability to like micro or macro, like we
really get on the same page and then we fight

(42:05):
together and how effective our communication is makes the game
really easy.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Yeah, even leading off that communication part because you like,
I feel like this stems back Eve into EWC when
you started teaming with Lou there, right when you guys
came together under the eight lead combo, right and like
Eve and Loose, since then, I've had like a pretty
interesting dynamic where obviously like you're like the main core
I gl but there's a lot of feedback from Lou
And anytime you like feel unsure something seems like you

(42:31):
throw it straight to him and he can like feed
a lot of that uh you know, I yelling role
instead himself. It's like a coach I yelled dynamic, but
it seems more of like a feedback thing instead, like
what uh yeah, what works there between.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
The two of you guys, I'd say, I mean, i'd
say at etc. You're completely right, I say, since EWC,
it's a little bit backward. I think Slayer honestly probably
makes a lot more calls than Lou does. Slayer's is
just a more vocal player when it comes to like
how he sees the game or what his suggestions want
to be. I am very lucky. You are correct that

(43:06):
I have two teammates that do understand the game. They
both are like very educated on like what good macro
is versus bad macro, why you should do something, of
why it makes sense, and if you're doing something and
it doesn't make sense, how to get out of it,
you know, and not ruin the rest of your game,
how to try to rescue it.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
Right.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
I am very lucky that I have teammates like that,
because every now and then there are situations in APEX.
It's not common where you know, I have to sit
there and be like, guys, I just don't got something
here that I see that can work, And you know,
sometimes through a different pair of eyes, they might be like,
what if we try this, you know, and sure enough,
whether it works or doesn't work. It's it's cool to
have a support system like that. Obviously, when I have

(43:48):
three players on my team that I'm confident in to
make a call. If Slayer sees something and I'm on
the other side of a building. I have no issue
with Slayer being like, Yo, we're going to do this.
This is what we're doing. Come do this right now
with me, I have no issue with either one of
my teammates saying over and they know that and there's
a lot there's a lot of trust in that system.
I just believe that both my teammates are smart.

Speaker 7 (44:08):
So yeah, so with having a team full of us
like as smart in regards to like game knowledge as
you guys have right now, have you have you like
had to deal with any amount of countercalling because I
understand that that is yeah, based upon our our previous experience,
I know that that has something that you've dealt with

(44:29):
in the past. And how do you guys balance you
being the IGL but then also trusting your teammates to
make those calls?

Speaker 5 (44:35):
Yeah, we have, we have. We have moments where like
counter calls happen that are bad. But there's like a
big difference, right, like how I think we draw that
boundary and how I think throw that line is Like
like countercalling is more so when like the IGL needs
to make a call or has made a call and
nothing's being made right, which at that point in my

(44:55):
opinion isn't it is countercalling, But at the end of
the day, it's also like the Jill isn't doing his job,
which causes someone else's step up. Now, if I'm screaming
do this, do this, do this, and then my other
teammate goes no, no, no, do this, like that would
be a big issue, but that doesn't happen on my
we that it just isn't like a situation we have
to deal with, so I can't really relate to it,

(45:18):
And then it kind of doubles back into the whole
like countercalling thing of I trust my teammates, so if
they make a call and I'm not making a call
in the moment, I will just listen to them like
they're not stupid players, and majority of the time they
will be right as well. The other fundamental that we
have is asking me questions if they don't want a

(45:39):
countercall where they don't feel like they know how to
play the game, Zach, what are we going to do?
What do you want to do here? What's the plan? Right?
And then that'll force me to start that that conversation right.
So that's kind of our our little pyramid of.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Haveing to not be shit, yeah, and I love you
brought up Slayer too, because I think on this specific
episode I had talked to I watched through all of
your guys' scrims last not scrims, I watched all through
you guys Pro League Day, last week and this week,
and I just felt like it wasn't being talked about
enough how much Slayer was doing, at least around you know,
everybody else who kind of pays attention to the league,

(46:19):
and it was super impressive. And the one thing I
noticed too was, I mean, there was a moment when
you had first teamed with Slayer. It was you Slayer
in Luxford, and things got pretty bad at some points,
then it was like really good at some points, and
it kind of went back and forth. Ultimately when it
came to sticking with Slayer, was it based purely on
your guys' ability to kind of bounce ideas off of

(46:40):
each other, like you've been mentioning.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
Oh, if I didn't say the truth on this day,
was shut on here, So I would. I don't mind
telling the truth. We did try this with a bunch
of players. It was me and Lou locked in and
because I had a pro League spot, we tried out.
We wanted up God, I can't even remember. I might
say some names that didn't happen, but the ones that
I do remember like very clearly that I asked. We

(47:04):
did a try out with Guild. Guild went to Timmy's team.
Guild didn't want to play. We hit up Zap. Zap
felt really good about his current team, he said, no.
We hit up Psych's obviously a team together. That was
a no. We hit we like, we hit up like

(47:25):
at least four or five players that I've either already
came to it or thought were like super super high.
Oh yeah, we hit up Shuv that we thought like
really highly of, right. We even like at one point
we're like considering not because of how we did a EWC.
We were like talking to Knock and he had his
own thing going. So, I mean we did try a

(47:45):
lot of options and uh kind of just ran out
of time trying so many different options that ended up
just telling us no, like telling me and no. And
after we tried our lost like last option, we were
just like completely out of time and we were just
like you know that, like we'll play with Slayer and
like we have to like make the most of the

(48:07):
situation at that point in time, like just being rettally honest,
like didn't either me or Lou or I guess honestly
the rest of the world knew that like Slayer would
kind of grow into the player that he is today.
So definitely got really lucky there, very very very lucky.
Did not expect Slayer to like kind of blossom like this.

(48:28):
I think he's a fucking incredible player. I think he's
criminally underrated and definitely kind of break there in Guild
and all these other players saying no, they don't want
to play with me and Limb.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, I mean, like you talk about him growing into it,
watching his time in LG, he wasn't saying really anything
of what he's saying now, just like watching your guys'
last Pro League day. Completely different type of player. And
then also he had that play on Broken Moon where
he's just chucking like six s guy and aides straight
over the top interferia area insane, Like.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
Yeah, no, I'm well, I mean to give a little
bit of credit where credits due on LG, the environment
was Sweet is way different than it is with me.
Sweet is much stronger IGL than me, and you could
even argue that he's a much better I gl than
me in a lot of those aspects, in the sense
of like Slayer didn't really even if Slayer could say
those things on that roster, which I don't think he

(49:22):
was supposed to. I don't. I don't think Sweet was
ever like not giving a plan or like struggling to
formulate a planned even if it was a bad one.
So I think there was definitely like less opportunity to
speak up to there's on VP currently. But yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
We've even talked offline before about how he handled whole situation.
Was like I think it like made a ton of
people like Slayer for that reason, right, like because it
seemed like there.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Was heat on him all the time. But then he's
like the underdoes right exactly.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
The cool thing that I think this could transition to though, is, uh,
you know, watching your last two days, you guys are
like really flexible and with the legend bands, right you Like,
I feel teams typically have identities, but you know that
first Pro League day where you guys come second, you
guys got a lot of zone pulls yourself, So you
guys played the zone, especially on Broken Moon converted two
games to wins, whereas this Pro League day you didn't

(50:13):
have those zones. You guys had to play a lot
more aggressive for the first two Broken Moon games. It
still put up a lot of kills. That's what I
thought was pretty cool coming from all out of you guys,
especially even someone like Slayers, like they're how have you
guys been able to navigate that with creating comps in
the legend band now and like trying to like mix
like what happens depending on the zone with what you're playing.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
Yeah, I mean, the team environment going to this previous
weekend wasn't super high. To be honest with you, as players,
I don't think it's known publicly, but as players, we
know are draft picks for every single Pro League week
and stuff like that already. I'm not sure if that
it's public, it might be. And like this week that
we just played is by far our hardest week. Like

(50:58):
the twenty pick, it's not only our worst pick, but
then the worst like a mix of maps like Eadie
into Broken Moon is probably like as bad as it's
going to get, as far as like three three maps
is going to go. And then again it was our
worst pick that we haven't turd draft, so like like
throughout the week of scrims, and keep in mind we've
always gotten slammed scrims. We're definitely a tournament team. It

(51:22):
you know, the vibe wasn't great, Like we're optimistic because
we know that we're a tournament team and we show
up as like a different animal in those days. But
it kind of felt like a real big uphill battle.
I know, internally, in my own head, I was telling myself, like,
if we could just pull off like a top six here,
I would just be ecstatic because the top six would
very likely finish us like first and pro League four

(51:44):
second at worst, which would give us a great seed
for this upcoming land And on top of that, that
would just be like an accomplishment I'm proud of. Like, yeah,
we got Hella zones on day one and we couldn't
win because how decided that he was just going to
carry the entire fucking ALGs on his back. But that
second day, you know, it was all about like scalping

(52:04):
as many points as we could, you know, So to
finish third was just incredible. And I had I mean
that vod exists. I had a really bad day on
the district, I was calling, like shit, it just wasn't
a good day for me at all. And then on
Brooke and Moon, I kind of brought it together. But
throughout the entire day, both my teammates played like as

(52:25):
good as I could have asked them to, and because
of that, we were able to rescue the day, right.
We never fell so low below the belt with me
making a bad call here or there that the day
was like just gone. So it was really awesome for
us to have that Alpha base game, which was that
was an incredible game. I mean, we probably should have
won that game. I hesitated on a call that a

(52:48):
Slayer recommended and even I thought about it on my own,
and it was a super good game winning call to
catch Energy off guard in the back of the map,
and I just I just didn't call it, but still
was like a twenty point game or fifteen point game.
And then of course the next game we see the
same old experimental lab zone that VP has won like
three times now, so we'll keep winning those.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Why I was just I was just gonna say, I
mean that that you you mentioned that game and how
good that game was, and it got me wondering as
I was watching it. Last week, you guys had some
really good zones, but you guys played them perfectly and
you get the wins off of those. This week, you
have zones that are a little bit more difficult, but
you still manage to traverse the entire map get to
a spot where you really could have won that game.

(53:33):
I'm wondering from an igl perspective, and I don't even
know if you think of it this way, but is
there one you enjoy igling from more the I have
the zone, I just got to make sure we hold
it or we don't have shit. We just got to
run across the map and hope something happens. Like, is
there a more fun way, uh, one that you prefer? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (53:52):
Well, I mean I played Edge and Apex for like
three years straight. I freaking hated early rotating. There were
many that is that were like, if you played Edge,
you had a chance. If you were stuck on blue
armor versus a red Armor team, your game's just over.
So I've always been big into like playing like the
Edge play style or trying to like fight my way

(54:13):
through it. So again, like those alpha based games feel
a lot more fun for me. Or a little bit
more fluid versus you know those experimental labs games where
you know, I have basically almost never really rotated in
my like five six year career, So it's obviously much
easier to early rotate than it is to play EDGE.

(54:35):
Like that's self explanatory. However, being capable of like sitting
on your hands for twenty minutes and not throwing the
game is also like its own skill. Like I can't
tell you often we see even in top teams or
the bottom teams, you know, they're just in game winning
spot and they're in fifth place with no KP because
they're just in game winning spot. Someone makes a small

(54:56):
mistake and that game is a three point game, but
it should have been like twenty five, So a different
skill sets. I prefer playing edge, though.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
But what I was also gonna throw out two is.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Like, in terms of the POY draft, as you're mentioning,
I don't know if some of the listeners like actually
realize that with ED there's only like twenty drops. And
so when you guys have that twenty broken moon, isn't
there only twenty on ED as well? Perfuly have twenty?
Pretty sure districting is twenty as well.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
Yeah, you might be right on both. Yeah, Berkhamon as
well went first in the draft.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Oh did it because like, regardless of maybe, yeah, what
I see here is you guys took your E District
pick first at twentieth and you guys took Canal Aplausa
because I'm assuming there's nothing else.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
Okay where you might I think you're right and I
was wrong.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Yeah, and then and then after you went with because
everyone right now has been taking for the most part, Uh,
they're they're like E District Poy's first from week to week.
And I assume that was just because like, yeah, like
there's only the twenty Canal shit, So if you're twentieth place,
you're gonna get that you have no resources, whereas at
least you're able to get foundery at twenty first still

(56:06):
on a BM so you can like make some work
with that.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
There. It's a it's a decent Edgepoy.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (56:12):
That's something that's been like an internal dialogue. And I'd
like the top teams of Pro League that I really
really really cannot explain how much I dislike I've been
very vocal about it. Pro League is like arguably the
weakest it's ever been. Right now, it's a lot of
teams that are learning and or new and or just
have no idea what's going on. So what happens in

(56:33):
these drafts is people see like three people pick a
map and they feel pressured to pick them up. And
it's really disappointing because, like you know, you'll see these
like more educated teams just not doing that. So for example,
when you know the first three picks of the draft
are Ed, those guys that are like three through six,

(56:54):
Like if they pick Ed as well, then we've done
six edpo wis in a while. In a row, it's
gonna go all the way down to twenty, Like they're
just gonna pick all twenty edpois. And it's so frustrating
for me because it's like if you actually snake draft
like the best pois down the list.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Like.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
Who actually ends up with two good pois instead of
one like mediocre or one insane poi and then a
really shit one, it like dramatically changes how your draft looks.
And it's so frustrating because it's like this new thing
that is happening in pro league. This has never happened
before in any draft we ever did in scrims or anything.
It's brand new to this pro league and it's because

(57:33):
of these like newer players that are learning. And it's
just so frustrating to see drafts go like that because
both these maps have incredible pois that just naturally set
you up for success regardless of what zone it, and
people are just ignoring it to take subpart pois and
know the map because they feel pressured by the picks
above them, and it's kind of just disappointing because like

(57:53):
I don't know, it's just frustrating.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Yeah, eighteen eighteen picks went on E district first.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
I mean Quarantine went like sixteenth or something, I'm pretty sure,
and then Terror Forma was like eighteen something like that.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
Yeah, it's it's it's all over the place, like you know,
it's pretty pretty, like I said, like pretty interesting. Then
I assumed you guys were forced into Canal Plausa because
the fact eighteen picks went, Yeah, I wasn't even sure
where Canal Plaza was on the map until I looked
up the map view right, like, because like I've like
been in lobbies before where they named them all different things.
That was like no name pois is one from a resort.

(58:26):
There's like two in front of stadium, and like they're
just shit poized, so they're not.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
Yeah. Yeah, the reason we picked it is because of Champs, right, Like,
going into this upcoming land, I'm on VPM, the number
one seed in the world, which is a very different
environment than my previous lane at Champs where we are
picks were like nineteen fifteen, fourteen, fifteen, thirteen, and then

(58:50):
our final draft, final draft for Champs was like fourteenth pick,
and those are not good picks. Those are really bad
picks because it's not snake draft. It comes down and
back up, just goes down and then resets, I think,
goes down again. So you get screwed it when you're
like the last pick, right, So we had to get
really comfortable from a really bad POI, and that POI
was Canal Plaza. So going into this Pro League, like,

(59:10):
whenever we have to scapegoat something, we'll just pick Canal.
It's just where we have the most time from. I mean,
we've even played a land from there that we succeeded with,
so we just that's that's kind of why we took it.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
Makes sense.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yeah, I was I was going back and looking through
I wanted to listen to our older interview kind of
see what was going on back in those days versus now.
And speaking of the maps, we had said, we had
asked you about Broken Moon and you said that there
was potential there. Do you still feel like Broken Moon
has potential to be competitive? You still like Broken Moon
in the in the rotation?

Speaker 5 (59:43):
Yeah, it's kind of like just a fucking pain in
the ass when they do stuff like this. Uh, I
do think Brickman has a lot of potential. Just to
answer your question, first, I still believe that it's like,
for example, Stormpoint. Everyone loves Stormpoint. People would say it's
arguably the best map in the game. It's not. If

(01:00:03):
it's not first, it's definitely second on like every pro
players tier list or every competitive players HEREI list for
what is the most competitive pan And you know, when
Stormpoint was coming out, we I don't think I'm under
NBA for this anymore, but we, like pros and content
creators were played testing that map rigorously. I'm not talking

(01:00:23):
about like, oh we like did this and that. I'm
talking about like trees were like gray cylinders, Like we
play tested that map from the bare bones up right,
and those hills that have like rocks just scattered all over,
like for example, right underneath Thunderwatch, that hill that has
rocks everywhere, that did not look like that when they

(01:00:44):
first sent that to it, Like we had to sit
like us had to go, Yo, this hill sucks. You
can never do anything here. We need to add rocks here, here, here,
here's you could actually walk up this hill if that
zone somehow did that. Same with like the spiders above
launch Pad, right, Like, these chokes are really hard to push,
but at least there's cover going spot to spot. We're
on many other maps, especially seen in like Broken Moon

(01:01:07):
and Olympus. The chokes are death. They're not like, you know,
like falcons are getting two v three by fifty four
year old dads in a sofa on a seventy inch
TV sitting fifteen feet away, right, Like, these aren't normal chokes.
These are like, all right, your game is going to
end here, So what could you accomplish earlier? And it's
really disappointing that we have to play something like that

(01:01:29):
when we've given them feedback like that internally privately, because
we've had the opportunity to work on these maps in
the past and they come out with being some of
you know, the fan favorite and competitive favorite maps. So
it's a real big bummer when we tell them, like, hey,
you guys have three really good maps, please do not
force like top two worst map on us, and then

(01:01:52):
they just do. It is really disappointing. Does have a
lot of potential. The potential would be like some of
those chokes that you see that are just unpushable. It's
really disappoint zip rails are really really, really healthy for
that map in casual play. In competitive play, it speeds
up the pace of some of the edgepois and speeds
up the pace of some of the third parties. And

(01:02:13):
because of like the because of how smart some of
these igls are and they can play the game of
chess and understand the next four moves of the teams
around them. You can just get away with so much
because of the how much distance you can travel with
those and you know, it really is disappointing. We're playing
it right now, but we didn't get a choice.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
I think that kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
Spins back to what you were saying about a lot
of people like having to learn so much. You guys
got Legend Band POI draft for some of these new teams,
Broken Moon and World's Edge removed all in this pro
league all at once, which kind of creates a whole
situation where it's just everyone's doing whatever right because like
even by playing with the Legend, the Legend ban just
so many new characters that that was another thing was

(01:02:55):
gonna ask you about, like, how are you guys, Like
typically you guys play so much on three characters, you
get this like mastery around them. But now you're like
you're throwing in fuse, like late in the game, you
got you're switching up a comp completely six games later
and when Land comes around, could be even things you've
never played before. How are you guys managing that like
mastering like different characters.

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
We have an analyst. I don't even know how much
I could say about this.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
That's an okay answer, then I'll just be super vague.

Speaker 5 (01:03:24):
We have an analyst who has a lot of data
on every Legend and how they perform in scrims and
how they perform casually and then how they perform it ranked.
And we have all the data on like average lifetime
and about fifteen other statistics, and you have to take
them all with a grain of salt, because again, scrims

(01:03:46):
are ranked have nothing to do with what an ALGs
day looks like. And everyone knows that you got to
take away a grain of salt. But more often than not,
those statistics point correct, they are wrong, So you can't
you know, you can't read it like a religion, but
you definitely can read it and you know, formulate your
own opinion off of it and be somewhat reliable with it.

(01:04:08):
That's kind of something we did, you know, we use
those statistics, and we also used our own opinions and
made a spin off of what the statistics said with
our own what we think is good and what our
players are capable of playing at the highest level. And
then that's kind of how we pick our allegends throughout
the tournament.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
Yeah, because it's not like you guys are like, you know,
like some people I think assume the draft to just okay,
Ash got banned, We fit in Ash. Newcastle got banned.
Who can replace Newcastle? No, like Newcastle gets banned. You
guys are swapping out the Rampart two for example.

Speaker 5 (01:04:40):
Right, Yeah, we have Yeah, we have like a bunch
of audibles and stuff that we do, Like if there's
there's like certain trigger characters that if they get banned
earlier or something weird like that, like it changes the
way we play the rest of the day. Like one
character gets banned, that character complements the other two characters
so much that we don't play those other or two

(01:05:00):
characters for the rest of the block. So in a
hypothetical where that character got banned game one, it's basically
like they banned three characters from us. Right Again, that
I have to be vague because I don't want to,
like say too much because obviously falcons, under thieves, Shopify,
we all have our own things and they wouldn't even
listen to me anyway. But those the bottom teams that
I don't want to I don't want to be helping

(01:05:22):
out too much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Do you expect the way that the Legend bands?

Speaker 7 (01:05:27):
Do you think that they'll be going substantially different with
all of the different play styles from the different regions
at this coming up land than it has been in
your first two weeks yet of pre league.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
So yeah, that's a great question. That is a fantastic question.
We have been talking about that internally with other pros
and other coaches and analysts, And yeah, I mean in
other regions we see Crypto getting banned in game one,
game two. Usually in other regions we're seeing like there's
days where like lots and got banned one time. That's
what I saw. I was like, dude, like day that

(01:06:00):
we see Watson get banded at NA, Let's just fucking
so like, I mean, it only happened one time in
a scrim block if I remember correctly, is but I'd
imagine it doesn't happen anymore. But you get my point, right, Yeah,
So on at Land it is going to be very,
very dramatically different with the bands. But I mean it
could work in your favor, right, Like, for example, I

(01:06:22):
think Falcons are a good Newcastle team, so if they
get to play Newcastle for six games, they're going to
do really well. It's just like an NA, they're never
going to get to play six news, right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
So, I mean you've come from you know, the earlier
days of when everything was kind of like you had
to fight for your pois, you had to you basically
just ran the same comps all the time. Now so
much has changed. Do you ever wish you could like,
is there one change that they have made that you're like,
I really wish they'd go back on this one. I mean,
we've we have so many now, POI draft, Legend Bands,

(01:06:56):
different maps, all that kind of stuff. Is there one
you kind of miss, maybe not even necessarily you wish
you could go back to, but you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
Just miss it, not necessarily as a competitor. I hate
match point because it doesn't reward the best team, which
I think is stupid, but I understand it's healthy for
the game. I think Legend bands. I was more optimistic
about Legend bands the majority of pros. I thought it'd

(01:07:22):
be a cool way to spice things up and give
like Challenger Circuit kids a chance. I mean, we've had
like a freaking hierarchy of who could win an Apex
for god knows how many years now because these players
are just so much better than everyone else. So it's
cool to the you know, through a wrench in it
and see if you know they're still at the top
and stuff like that. I'm sure they don't like it, obviously,
so I've been in support of all of that. I

(01:07:42):
wasn't necessarily a big fan of the POI draft. I
am a fan of it now because I see the
benefits of it. However, you know, when you are one
of the best teams pre POI draft, you just the
best pois on the map, and people wouldn't waste their

(01:08:03):
time best in and you know, playing like freakin' ill
sky West Trials is pretty easy. So it's like, I
wasn't a big fan of the POI Draft. I was
super against it. I was even saying brain dead stuff,
like people literally might retire off this change. I was

(01:08:23):
saying some of the dumb shit I've ever said, which
is a statement for me. I ended up really liking it.
I think it's super healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think for not just for
for the players, but I do think just watching it
has been it's been a lot better. And I think
when you go to Supporo and you've got, you know,
an entire panel dedicated to the POI Draft, I think
it just kind of expands the sport overall, just kind
of gets more involvement, more people talking about it. So
I think it's it's positive. I just always wondered, from

(01:08:51):
a perspective of a player who's played for a while,
what they would what they would think and and how
they would feel about that I kind of wanted to
go back to your backs story a little bit as well,
because it's been so long since we've had you on.
There might be a lot of people who I mean,
it was before YouTube when we were uploading these things
on YouTube. So I was listening back to that old
episode and I caught something that I didn't quite remember,

(01:09:13):
but you had said that you had gotten your first
opportunity with fly Quest just from being a Discord moderator.
Do you want to go through that story again real quick?

Speaker 5 (01:09:23):
Yeah, I wasn't really a gamer before this, you know,
like Sweet Dreams or hal Or Dropped or a lot
of these like big names in Aphex. These guys have
been playing competitive videogames for you know, ten to fifteen years.
I mean, these guys were pro in H one in
twenty fourteen or twenty sixteen. A lot of the guys
I'm competing against im doing this for years. They understand
the etiquette or so many other aspects that had advantages

(01:09:46):
over me, Whereas like I didn't even really start gaming
until twenty nineteen in my freking college dorm room, and
you know, I blew off some classes playing too much
Fortnite enjoying college life and and in the process of that,
I'm a very competitive person growing up playing traditional sports
my whole life. In the process of that, I got

(01:10:08):
really good at Fortnite really fast. I got scouted by
a T One talent scout for Fortnite, and we were
close friends. I was never good enough to go pro
in Fortnite, because again, I was just brand new to
video games. I was I was damn good, but I
wasn't good enough to get signed to T One. You know,

(01:10:29):
he's standing next to Faker. But I had that friendship
and he straight up told me. He was brutally honest.
He was like, dude, you're really good, but it's just
a little too late for you to kind of get
in this game unless you're like a generational talent. And
he tipped me off. He was like, hey, I'll be
honest with you. Like, there's a new game that they

(01:10:50):
privately reached out to me. The company reach out to me.
It's coming out in two months. It's called afx LNE.
It's supposed to be similar to Fortnite, and like the
way the game works, you won't be late to this game.
If you really want to have a shot at anything
like this, like this would be it. And that was
like two months before the game came out. So of

(01:11:10):
course I wasted the next two months at college doing
absolutely nothing, just being piece of shit playing more Fortnite
and yeah, I get it back in. For those of
you that don't know, APEX came out on January fifth,
and I remember being like January third, and I was like,
oh God, like I have to go back to school,
Like I can't like have another bad semester. I have

(01:11:33):
to like do this. But then I was also like
this games coming out, I'm like I actually have a chance.
And you know, I'm this little optimistic nineteen year old.
So yeah, I screwed off college and kind of went
all in on APEX. And I had no relationships with
anyone because again I remember, if you guys remember the
players getting signed, it was like freaking Prodigy Asis were
on TSM and Ta Hump and stuff like that. It

(01:11:55):
was like bendo, Like none of these players that ever
lasted or even were that good. The offense to them
is it was just more so about like picking up
talent for previous games that had a name that could
compete early on. Right, So I had no way in
regardless of how good I was, which at the time
wasn't good. So what I did is I talked to

(01:12:18):
my friend at T One t One. The ord ended
up founding the first ever Apex Legends Pro League and
it was ran through a discord called the APL and
I was telling them that like, yeah, this is what
I want to do, Like, whatever you need me to do,
I'll do. So they asked me, They were like, do
you want to be a moderator and just run the

(01:12:39):
script that way that like every pro or every amateur
or every everyone will unironically have to see your name
at some point, so that if you happen to become good,
they will know who you are. I was like, dude,
if that's the only entry I got, why would I
ever say no? So I was a Discord moderator for
the first ever at Apex Legends Pro League, which got

(01:13:01):
me like two of the worst CC kids that were
willing to play with me, and I backpacked this ship
out of them and then I got scouted by fly
Quest's talent like coordinator. He ate me up privately joined
them later on and that's how that went. So yeah,
it was discord moderator to fly Quest. It was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Was that that was that team Monson and Lou Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And at the time that was like Monson at that
time was I would say, like right below Imperial. How
like as far as people knew exactly where you know that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
Like Mon then like Retzi probably or like Ace right
or no, it was how then like Retzi or Ace.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
And then.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
After that I think I said that right yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
And when they picked you up, was it because you
had like you'd reached that level or was it kind.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
Of just like no, it was like a shot in
the dark. They were like, we're gonna take this risk
on this kid, Zach because he like works really hard,
and like Lou was like getting hack us aided and
like banned every other day because he was just the
greatest player in the game. And Mon was getting hack
us aidd because he does that weird, freaky shit where
he shakes his mouth and it was weird, but he
was consistent, so it didn't make sense to people. And

(01:14:14):
then I was just some like random little piece of
shit college kid that nobody knew of, nobody ever heard of.
I was just some little little fucker that had a
good work ethic is that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
Would you attribute like your skill and how you developed
just to the work.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
I think a lot of people, I feel like, we
see these young kids come in, they just like, ha
insane talent. Did you feel like when you started the
game you had that at all?

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Or was just finding out?

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Oh god? I mean, dude, I was shipped for years.
I mean I was a professional for many years, and
my bigs achievement at that point in time was you know,
was not during that regional championship with Naughty as well?
Had I had many land appearances and stuff? Or I
couldn't play where we would get like you know, tenth
or fourteenth or seventeenth or fifteenth, But like, yeah, saying

(01:14:59):
you got and teams out of land that is an accomplishment,
that's kind of like a fuck me, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Yeah, But like I think the funny thing is you've
been competing with pro since the day of the game,
like since the early days of the game came out.
So you're comparing yourself to those top pros compared to
the average Apex player, Like you were unreal at the
game right, Like, And that's what I was saying, Like,
did you even feel like you had that you think
you really were able to hang even.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Though you were.

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
I don't. I don't. I mean again, like there's there there.
There is a reason that people say in the history
of the game that I am the most player and
I will for ever be the most player that will
ever touch this game. I was that bad original I
really it sounds hard to believe because I'm like on
the number one seed going to Land. I'm arguably like

(01:15:47):
one of the better players in the world right now.
Far from the best, but I'm up there. You know,
you could bake arguments like that and uh yeah, at
that point in time in definitely wouldn't recognize me. Definitely
had to work really hard over those years to grow.
Obviously now I slack off a little bit more. But
to put it in perspective, I have just over eighteen
thousand hours in APEX, just a little bit over like

(01:16:09):
two years. If I'm doing the math correctly in my head,
and I think at maximum ab afk hours would equal
like the one thousand, like thirteen hundred. That's me be generous.
So I you know, I have almost two hours on
the game or two years, excuse me, two years on
the game. I worked hard to have the thought process

(01:16:31):
and skill that I do have now, which obviously isn't
even perfect. I still got some to go.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
No, I mean kudos in all those hours though I
noticed they're putting Slayer on Ash. They really don't want
you ashboarding into Zone five again. Huh, even those three
years ago.

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
They don't know that's me, that's me, that's actually me.
I like refuse to play it. I won't play that character,
even though like there's situations where like it makes the
most sense for me to play it, I won't play it.
It's like, I know everyone knows that I got tough
skid when it come to this stuff. So the major
moments or the actual things never bothered me. The only

(01:17:05):
thing that could ever bother me is myself and how
I get in my own head. And yeah, I mean
that ash portal. That left the mark for sure. Man,
I don't think you will ever see me play that
character again. I was kidding.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
I didn't know that that Ash portal.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
I'm serious. Like we had internal conversations with like, yo,
I think you should play Ash back, and I was like,
I never played that character again. You can learn it
or you can learn it. I will never play this together, damn.
And they were making jokes and we were all making
jokes like dude, you get two portals now, like you
can send Like you're fine now, bro, Like they literally

(01:17:43):
made this patch for you. We got the alter all
to get back.

Speaker 3 (01:17:46):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:17:47):
Yeah, I'm not playing that ship.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
That's actually hilarious. That's so funny. They were like kind
of tips on it. There is a second one, so
if the first the first one goes wrong, we can
get you back. Like that's funny.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
Of them, but not that one.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
Yeah, it is fine. It is kind of crazy though,
to look through. And I kind of love when when
we haven't had a guess on for so long, because
listening to where they were so long ago, it's nice
to bring them back on and listening to yours. At
the time, you were just starting up BBB. That was
Bald Brows and brit that was you design and Chaotic,

(01:18:24):
and that squad was just starting up. Enoch I think
was the coach that he was the coach. I said, yeah,
so we had that roster go down, and just thinking
about where you were at that time versus now, it's
like a night and day difference, like just and even
just in public perception like there was there was moments
where people like can Zac get back to those C

(01:18:47):
nine days, especially around that BBB time, And when you
look through and you see where you're at right now,
you're sitting at number one in Pro League, fifth at Champs.
You've had this, all these different accomplishments happened. Now, what
was the biggest improvement you made? Like what changed from
BBB to now? Like what were the things you had
to change in your own game to get to this point?

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Kind of have a double ed sword. But I think
it's my confidence. I think it's just I just never
give up on myself and no matter how bad I was,
because I had moments where I would make some really
bad calls and say some really dumb things, you know.
And I have always had credibly good accountability, like arguably
the best of anyone. And I think like the accountability

(01:19:34):
mixed with my confidence is what got me here. Is
when it is my mistake or my issue where I
could have done something different, nobody else to tell me anything. Dude,
I own that stuff so fast, and if it's something
that I don't agree on, we can talk it out.
And if I feel that they're right, I just say,
you know, I mean I was wrong. I think you're
right here. This is on meat is what I could
have done. I still think you could have done this

(01:19:54):
differently and what helped, But I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
This is my blot.

Speaker 5 (01:19:57):
No. Yeah, And then you mix that with someone who
just like never ever gives up on themselves when they
get down or things go bad. It's like, you're good,
You're just gonna be positive trending, and you know sooner
or later you'll have that breakout. And I did around
that time. I mean that BBB roster was really good.
Gout If was a great player, Design was a great player.

(01:20:18):
I was videocre at the time, and honestly, the roster
was like going pretty good at first. We were like
sixth the Pro League at one point or fifth and
early at one point. Yeah, went awire partially due to designs,
Internet issues and you know, chaotics throwing parties with scrims
and shit like that. These are all fun times, by
the way, you don't know, it just it just didn't

(01:20:42):
work out, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
Yeah. And and it's kind of crazy too, because, uh,
you talk about that accountability. I literally watched it happen
in this last Pro League Day. There was like two
or three games where you start off you're saying, like,
why didn't this happen? Lou and Slayers explained it to you,
and you kind of take a moment you're like, you
know what, Okay, Yeah, I think I see I think
I see what's going on. And I don't think you

(01:21:05):
see that. From a lot of igls nowadays, I really don't,
like it's very hard to get them to admit anything.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
Really, yeah, I mean, the accountability is really hard because,
especially when you're the ijail, you have like a you
have like a it's almost like a superpower that other
players don't have to like play chess and apex and
like control other people and force them to do things.
You literally see the game differently. So when you like
have this vision of how you want the game to
play out and you had the ability to play it
out that way, and your teammates or you do something

(01:21:33):
that results in it not going the way that you
revision sends it off. It can be really fucking frustrating.
And I think a lot of ijails don't understand that
when it doesn't go your way, that doesn't mean your
game ends. I means you just got to think on
your feet. The game is over. You just have to
do something now that is you know, like adapting. You

(01:21:55):
know you're on the fly and that that that's where
it gets hard, right And like that. That game that
you're talking about was the City Hall Bowl game, yep.
And we had the best plan you possibly could have
had for that zone close and as it happens, you know,
a team just evacs and lands on us. We're nowhere

(01:22:16):
near zone and I had no choice but to make
a call instantly. That wasn't what we originally wanted to
do because we couldn't do it anymore because someone threw
a wrench in it and landed underneath us. And I
didn't make a call. I did not act on the fly.
We all died because of it. And I was really
frustrated that it didn't play out the way I wanted
to do it. But there's no to blame but myself.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Yeah, it's just super rare to see stuff like that,
and I think it's it's it's commendable and I think
it it's a big reason why I think we've seen
the jump from where you were then to where you
were now, and it's it's been super impressive. Man, It's
it's been fun to watch. I'm kind of I'm getting
near the end here with with everything I've got, But
I do have one question from match day two. I

(01:23:00):
believe Uh, there was a moment where you and Slayer
are both lagging, and me and Joe were watching this
together and we were kind of a little bit confused
when Slayer was saying he was lagging. Lou was like
adamant that he did not want to hear about Slayer lagging.
Is there a reason why that is? Is there something
like that happened behind me? Why does he not want

(01:23:25):
to hear about Can you like, can you like talking
me through?

Speaker 5 (01:23:28):
What game? It was? Of the ones you want?

Speaker 3 (01:23:30):
Unbroken Moon is a game too, Yeah, game it was
like our first set of games.

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
Yeah, yeah, match day two. Like he doesn't mean your
second day. He means yeah, match day two, and so
yeah gamely one, Yeah, you guys win. And there was
the game that was like back Production Yard that we
wrapped around front Production Yard and one right, that.

Speaker 5 (01:23:50):
Was the game.

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
No, that was game three. It was that one.

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
Yeah, there's the.

Speaker 5 (01:23:54):
Experimental Labs game where I took the alder TP and
died to yah, this guy's rating of OKA.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
Yeah, that one. So at one point you and Slayer
are both lag but then Slayer says I'm lagging. Lou
says Slayer, I don't want to hear you talk about it,
and then Slayer goes, hey, I'm lagging, and he's like, please, Slayer,
don't talk about it. You're gonna piss me off or
something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:24:15):
Yeah, we have like, we have some like tics. We
have some tics on our team that are a little interesting.
If you go back in that match saying you remember
the production Yard game is at one point where me
and Slayer are on the brink of death after Slayer
got cravered by Funk, and louis like, you guys can
take CP if you want. You guys can take TV

(01:24:35):
if you want. And me and Slayer are both like
ten HP. So neither of us reply to him, and
he goes like what the fuck is going on?

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
He starts freaking out.

Speaker 5 (01:24:47):
Yeah, and if you go listen to that dialogue, I'm like, Lou,
shut the fuck up, like you're going schitzo. Your mic
is a muted. Sorry, we were focused, it's our bad,
but just shut the fuck up so we can play
the game. Yeah, like sorry, we didn't reply to you,
Like yeah, those focus as well, you know, And it's
the same thing in the next game, Like when something
like that happened, it's just like one of our weird

(01:25:08):
picks we have or just like almost like argue or
like bicker about something so silly. I think one thing
for Lou and even somewhat for me is like pretty
big on like not making excuses and when things are
a valid excuse, like understanding that they exist but not
playing into them. So like, for example, when Slayer's lagging,

(01:25:32):
if if Lou and I can still play the game
and there's like kills and a lot of really good
things to happen, Like the last thing you want to
hear is your team a go. I'm lagging. I can't
play the game. I can't play the game. I can't
play the game. It's like, dude, the first time you
said it or the second time you say, I already
know you're out of the game. That doesn't mean our
game right, like we still want to play. I imagine
lu got frustrated because he just didn't want to hear it.
He was more probably just like all right, like we're

(01:25:54):
a fucking duo. How do we win this game? Or
mind max our points? Like, you know, he's like flipping
the switch in his head, like how do I handle this?
And Slayer's just in his You're like, yo, guys, I'm
still lagging. It's probably just like shut up, dude, I
don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
That's like I thought. Yeah, that's what we thought. That's
what me And because we watched it like four times,
he was.

Speaker 4 (01:26:12):
Just a funny reaction to it because of like how
quick he was like, don't talk about it. Uh, And
then he calls back to Stare's like Slayer, look here,
and Slater's is just like floating in the air because
he can't move, and he's.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
Like, I'm lagging right now. He's like, don't talk about it.
He's like Slayer's like okay, okay, I'm sorry, but he's.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Still just like can't move. That's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:26:29):
So yeah, it's just a funny thing more than anything.

Speaker 5 (01:26:31):
It's funny because if you actually do remember that game
in specific, we actually almost lost that game because boy,
he was some irony and yeah, right then an early
game and Lou's telling him to shut the fuck up,
and then we're in two squads alive three v three
and Luke completely lags out of the game.

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
Yeah, yeah, we mentioned that, but Luke didn't talk about
it very much because well.

Speaker 5 (01:26:56):
Yeah, no, not to talk guys. I'm ligging, guys, I'm ligging.
And now was it?

Speaker 1 (01:27:00):
Yep, no, it was. We figured that was the case,
but we didn't know if there had been something that happened,
like in scrims or behind the scenes that caused that,
Like your explanation was the reason why, because you just
don't want to hear about it in that moment, you
guys were like in this dire spot to try to
win that.

Speaker 5 (01:27:17):
Yeah, I mean it's it's a mix of both. It's
a mix of like, yeah, you don'tant to hear it,
but at the other fifty percent of it, maybe even
a little bit more, is just like you just don't
want to hear it. It's just the last thing you
want to. You literally have a free win on a
Pro League day that determines your land seating and potentially
qualifying FORWC and you are in a free game winning

(01:27:39):
spot and your teammates saying I'm lagged out of the
game like that, that's just not what.

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
You want to hear you not what you want to hear,
not what you want to hear, and then he ends
up lagging, which is hilarious. And still somehow you guys
won the game. By the way, your your Newcastle Wall
slayer was like literally one shot and you got it
in the spot before he went down almost perfectly. Otherwise
I don't know if you guys win that game, because
then that would have been one B two, one B

(01:28:06):
three I think. So that was crazy. That game all
the way around was absolutely insane. It happened, actually was real.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
Quick want to ask something because you just mentioned the
Newcastle Wall made me quickly think back to Japan that
last final game. Jay just released a whole video about
this and was talking about it with me, like breaking
down that final that final fight and the slam, and
it does like you turn ever so slightly that it
doesn't knock it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:31):
Dog one of them, and I can like pump you,
did you intentionally turn to be able to like block
LG thereof or no.

Speaker 5 (01:28:38):
It's like I have to turn the wall to like
boop them the direction I want to boot them, so
I easily could have landed on Bobby. I don't even
know who they were on at the time. I could
have easily landed on them and like booped them, you know,
towards climatizer, but that would just give my back to
sweeten them. So basically what that would do is just
guarantee that LG win the tournament, because I'm going to

(01:28:59):
kill all three of them to own, basically guaranteed, and
if they don't died his own, they're going to be
one HP and literally not be able to shoot their guns.
My teammates don't have a bubble or a Newcastle pack,
so they're just standing in the open. So if I
kill all of NAVE on my own and then my
teammates are staying in no man's land and all of
LG is sitting inside of a bubble, we basically are
just throwing the entire game. We're just saying, all right, LG,

(01:29:20):
here's your free one.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
And at that time, you probably you didn't know that
that was that was go next, but you knew that
that was LG.

Speaker 4 (01:29:27):
Right other way around, you guys called that you had
to focus going next because you knew they were a
cat team, both cats.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
Yeah, we knew it was a cat team, so we
thought it was Alliance because there was only two at
the time. Yeah, so we thought it was Alliance. Oh okay,
And that was the thought process was like, if you know,
there's like Margins, right, if there's anyone in the world
that's gone over a thousand times, it's me. I've gone
over it with Waltzy's You're literally everyone you know. I've
signed a discord with rewatched that endgame one. There's like

(01:29:53):
two things that we you know, talk about with hindsight
that could have changed the outcome of that game. One,
I could have walled on ultimate low ground where we were,
which obviously was a disgustingly bad spot. Yes, but if
I did wall that spot, Louse Bubble was on a
four second fool down at the time, which wasn't something
we were talking about. And if I got that wall down,

(01:30:14):
we would have gotten those four seconds and then we
would have been the very last give me dome and
there's a chance, a better chance for sure that we win.
The only other thing is when I'm doing that Newcastle wall,
I have to boop all three of them. If I'd
boop one of them, I dine in the back we loose.
If I had booped two of them, I die in
the back, I have to boop all three of them,
and if I boop them into his own OLG wins

(01:30:34):
for free. Right, So I have to boop all three
of them into LG's LG. Yeah, Yeah, which means I
have to like literally do a perfect wall. And if
you go watch it, I mean it's not centimeters. It
is like legitimate millimeters from booping Zadan also into LG
with the other two. And if that did happen, that
would have been like one of the craziest solo plays

(01:30:58):
to force a win. So we were in, by are
the worst spot.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
Yeah, it would have been unreal.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
It was just like it's literally like millimeters that moves
him to the left rather than to the right.

Speaker 5 (01:31:08):
Yeah, And you gotta remember, like we had so much
steam at that point, because like we started out the
tournament really rough and then on the back half of
it started getting all of our points. So I've talked
about this a million times. If we win that game,
instead of getting second or third, whatever we got, we
did the math on the points, that would have actually
put us in fourth seat of fifth, and then there
would have been one more game. And you know, any

(01:31:31):
time that you're on game four in like freaking seventeen,
and then by game eight or nine, whatever it was,
you're in freaking fourth, Like no, momentum is everything, it's game,
So is confident. I would like to think that we
either win champs or we finished top three. Yeah, well,
like if we had another game.

Speaker 4 (01:31:48):
Therewc's a perfect example where like Alliance was in like
fucking eighth and then jumps up to third and then wins.

Speaker 3 (01:31:54):
And same with LG.

Speaker 4 (01:31:55):
They were like in sixteenth and they finished third after
winning a game in like game like nine and then
being able to carry that and finish third overall.

Speaker 5 (01:32:03):
So it's the opposite for like me and Waltsea Waltsy
and I were first and second going in the game
five and we finished eleventh and twelve. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Yeah tough.

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
Uh do you guys have any others or eat? You
want to hit him with it?

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
I can hit him with it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
Let's do it, all right.

Speaker 7 (01:32:24):
So the question that I asked you already answered the
question that I ask everybody who comes on the pod,
because you've already been on before. But I do have
a question that ask everybody who comes on for that
second time, and that is from the last time you
came on the pod to now, what is the most
important thing you've learned?

Speaker 5 (01:32:42):
Shit, he gets deep, What is the most important thing
I've learned? Honestly, I could say something simple that would
just be that everyone would believe it's it's just don't
make changes when it's not and it doesn't make sense
to like again, like you know, we're in that offseason

(01:33:04):
we could pick up breaking for holes and we don't
do that. Stay with Slayer, and you know a lot
of people in that time were like giving me shit, like, dude,
are we really having this conversation that like you'd rather
have Slayer on hat and these roles than holes? Like
are we even having this conversation? Like how do we

(01:33:24):
even open the stores? And you know, as time goes on,
Obviously I made the decision I made with it, and
I don't regret it. Even if we weren't doing as
good as you for now, I still would have regretted.
I have a lot of faith it's layer. I think
players criminally underrated. I think you proved it a chance,
and yeah, that's what I would say. Probably probably don't

(01:33:47):
force changes. It's the grass isn't always greener. You gotta
remember that like super teams don't exist. Like the best
super team ever formed its Falcon. These guys haven't won
anything yet. By the time this out, they may have
already won the Open, they haven't won anything. I think
they got like second, third, second or something. We creep
like that, but I don't know, man, Uh you got

(01:34:09):
you want to have someone that isn't a superhero. I
want to have someone that can like play their role
and understand that, like the spotlight isn't going to be
on them, but what they're doing and contributing to the
team is the only reason the spotlight ends up on somebody. Yeah,
and you know everyone needs Slayer. That guy is. That
guy is way way, way more valuable. It will ever
get cridit for I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
I love it. Shout out Slayer, Man, Shout out Slayer. Well, Zach,
it's been a it's been a pleasure having you back
on man. It's always great to talk to you once again.
Good luck at the Open, and uh, hopefully the next
time we talk to you, we've got that trophy. It's
it's eluded, but I think there's a chance. There's a
good chance here. As we head into the Open, man.
Thanks for hopping on man, Thanks for hopping on man.

Speaker 5 (01:34:50):
We appreciate it, Bro of course, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Ben.

Speaker 5 (01:34:53):
You're today you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
All right, ladies and gents, we're gonna bring in a
brand new segment here, something I've wanted to do for
a long time and I'm glad we're doing it now.
We're gonna do the regional recap. We're gonna go through
all of the other regions. We mostly talk NA, everybody
knows that, but we're gonna talk about some of the
other regions and get some names out there for people
who maybe only get time to catch NA. You know,

(01:35:16):
maybe you're not able to catch all the other regions
based off time zone, whatever it may be, and you
want to know what's going on, but you don't fully
get the availability.

Speaker 5 (01:35:25):
To do so.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
So we're gonna run through and talk about some of
these teams real quick. So at the very least, when
you do get some time to watch these other regions,
you know who to watch out for, and you know
the names that are popping off inside the chat. So
let's kick it off, Dawn. Let's start with em e A.
So far em EA, we already know navi's been going crazy.
We're talking about our current land champions from Sapporo formerly

(01:35:46):
Go Next. They seem to be still doing great. How
is everything else going in EMA?

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
Yeah, no, it's it's definitely been. It feels like a
times dominated by NAB with the way that they've shown out.
You know again, I think, like we've talked about before,
kind of that championship mentality of we want to prove
everybody that this wasn't a fluke sort of idea. So
they've been definitely popping off, leading overall in the Immedia
a Media Pro league right now, which we'll get to

(01:36:14):
some of the standings here in a minute. But in
terms of what happened this week, Team Nemesis ended up
taking the match day pretty close day for the most part,
only about a ten point gap between them and second,
which second was Cashera's team called ten k But Team
Nemesis Newer Org that's come to Apex Remixed Powers, who

(01:36:35):
is on the nock To roster is a part of
that team. He led them with seventeen kills that particular
match day. Big thing with that region is just again
like that seems to be a region that definitely mirrors
a lot of what NA does at times. In AA
and Emia kind of seem to be close together, while
the two Apac regions kind of be seen close together
in terms of like uh in terms of just compositions

(01:36:55):
with who they pick. But yeah, overall, Team Nemesis take
match day three, really good job by them again some
other notable names from the region. Alliance takes sixth overall
on the day. Moving down the list, we've got Aurora
actually only finishes at thirteen in IP, which is Nasky's
team ends up fifteenth on the day, and then a

(01:37:15):
team like Phase Clan unfortunately still not quite quite found
their form and they got nineteenth on the day, So
a roster that's still trying to find themselves with the
new editions of Zaan and Tyler along with Snetics, so
we'll hopefully see them pick it up when it comes
to the land. But overall with Emiya and where they
stand in terms of the Pro League after one rotation,

(01:37:39):
we've got Nobby and First Infinite in second, Forbidden in third,
Alliance in fourth, and Team Nemesis in fifth, with the
other notable being Go next down there in sixth place.

Speaker 1 (01:37:51):
There we go, so that's EMA so far, A lot
of people give respect to that former knock to roster,
Like every time we've talked to somebody from EMA, talk
about how good that team was and it's unfortunate that
they kind of had to split up. But that you
hear that all the time from that roster, So keep
an eye on those guys. Let's move over to Apac
North down kind of go through what's going on in

(01:38:12):
the Apac North region.

Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
Yeah, so, unlike Amia and NA, they had to play
two match days this past weekend, so they had match
Day two and match Day three. It was the same
thing in Apac South when we get there, so there's
two groups to go through again. We'll go through that
real quick. Team Soton won match day two on a
tiebreaker with Arnhem a very hotly contested day. A lot

(01:38:36):
of different teams ended up taking the lead at one
point in another literally down to fourth place. It was
only a five point gap, so a lot of things
happen in that particular match day really good. Big shout
out to them, I believe if I remember correctly, which
I'm going to pull this up as quickly as I
can so we don't have too much of a delay,
but I believe they might be a PSQ team, which

(01:38:57):
is a big shout out to them if they are,
which yes they are, so a big shout out to
them for showing out. They don't have any pro League
or previous Land experience, so definitely a big surprise in
the air, but again a big shout out to them
for performing well. And then moving into match day three,
we actually had Reject, which is the team of Eureice

(01:39:20):
and Mia Kay and Rags. Big shout out to that roster.
One of the craziest pop offs I've ever seen from
a team after they won, which is a great great
thing to see. Agetting a Reese for those who don't know,
was originally here in North America, had competed in prior
pro leagues. It was a content creator, but actually learned

(01:39:41):
Japanese and moved over to the region as a content
creator at first, but then decided to take on pro
League this particular split, and so far, so good winning
the match day with Reject, so big shout out to them.
Another notable was GHS and Nosey Fox getting second and
third and Fanatic getting fourth in this particular match day.

(01:40:02):
So Finac is still continuing to play pretty well so far.
Biggs really storyline out of Apac North, which it's been
one of the craziest storylines to see. The overall world
kill leader through one rotation is a guy named u
Lari Man. He does not use the P twenties for
the most part. I've seen him mainly run Eva as

(01:40:24):
his close range and the guy is absolutely ridiculous. If
you saw Privacy was watching them during their screams today,
Privacy was even like, who the hell is this guy?
Because he's actually going crazy. His mechanics are something to watch,
so definitely keep an eye out. He plays for GHS
who GHS actually leads the region right now overall in
the Pro League, and so definitely keep an eye out

(01:40:45):
for Ulari Man just again incredible fragger to watch again.
Leads the world with fifty four kills through two match days,
which is absolutely insane because, like, I mean, some teams
don't even get that in I mean a pro league.
Like it's it's pretty crazy to see how well he's
popped off so far. But yeah, again, running through the

(01:41:06):
standings real quick. Over in Apac North, we've got GHS
leading in first, Fanatic is in second, so big shot
out to that roster is it made big changes. Our
r Ex is in third, Newbi is in fourth, and
arn Himb is in fifth. So a lot of I
think surprises over in that region. You know, e thirty
six is and sixth Rejects in seventh. But as we
go down the list, I mean, we've seen teams like

(01:41:29):
Crazy Raccoon is the big surprise. That is Obi Saint
June in Kerampu, who had once split one playoffs this
past year. They're down in twenty third, so we'll have
to see if they can hopefully pick up their form
moving forward. And then Riddle Order is another big roster
that was put together a lot of people had some
high expectations for They're down in twenty seventh, so ll
have to see if they can pick it up moving forward.

(01:41:51):
That particular roster, for those who don't know, it's Maltsterra,
Saku and Taita, which if you get if you watched
that region, malt Stara just came from the fanatic roster.
Tita has been a lot a lot of big rosters
in the past, so players who don't really expect to
see down in twenty seven so we'll have to see
if they end up picking it up and are able
to regain their form, but nothing like a land to

(01:42:11):
see if they can figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
So yeah, shout out to usee front of the program
if you want to listen to that interview. Really timeless
interview because he kind of goes through the entire journey
and thought process on why he wanted to move and
try all these different things. And I think I think
in that interview, if I can remember correctly, he had
said he didn't really feel like competing. But it's always

(01:42:33):
like you see these guys half the time, you know
that they're like a, I don't know, but then just
the lure of ALGs kind of brings them back in
and when they're already so good, why not you know,
you might as well go for it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:43):
So yeah, you can definitely help with the pop off
that he is full into probague because when they won
the game, they went absolutely crazy. I think they're all
playing together at some sort of like HQ or something
like that, because they were all celebrating together, and like
I said, it was it was one of the better
if we're talking about championship celebrations, they've got that on
the lot. So if they end up doing well at
this recent land, again, definitely shout out for Reject and

(01:43:06):
make sure to keep an eye on them because they
could be somebody that really could turn heads at this
next land.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
So let's round it out with a Pac South. Now,
APAC South is the final region here, don What have
you seen from APAC South?

Speaker 2 (01:43:19):
Yeah, so, like I said, a lot of similarities to
when it comes to APAC North and just the way
they play in the style that they've played. APAX South
is very much known for being super aggressive and some
of these teams definitely play some very interesting strats when
it comes to apeing teams or different comps. For match
day two, Keep Going, let me actually make sure that's

(01:43:41):
very quick.

Speaker 1 (01:43:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
So match day two, Keep Going ended up winning the
day with eighty five points. Big shoutouts, and then they
had fifty seven kills as a squad, relatively unknown team
in terms of kind of the world stage, but definitely
big shout out as they played extremely well. Second place
on that day was Roy's team, who if people remember

(01:44:03):
that is from the old dream Fire Rosters Shoji who
is their newest edition, went absolutely crazy. If it wasn't
for Ulari man Shogi would actually be the world leader
and kills he has fifty through two match days. He
had thirty three kills in this particular one, So they
went absolutely crazy and they're a team that is playing

(01:44:25):
some crazy comps to say the least. They had literally
opened with Ballistic Crypto and Mad Maggie. I believe in
the world they might be one of the two or
three teams that's actually running the Maggie and they are
absolutely running it down like Shoji basically was playing Maggie
the wull time and literally the first game had twelve kills.
They just absolutely just running to anybody and everybody. So
it's pretty entertaining to watch. May not be entertaining for

(01:44:48):
my team nice guys because they're in the same lobby
I think to start with. So we'll see how that goes.
But no, overall, a lot of pretty fun team to
watch are gonna take a lot of fights at this
lant I think, but definitely the shout out to Lonely
let Go is their team name, and they got second
on the day for that match day two. Moving over
to match day three, a Green Stago who is the

(01:45:08):
ex makers roster that people might have seen at previous Lands.
They take the day pretty complete performance. They played extremely well. Again,
it's the same makeup we've seen from this roster for
about a year a year and a half or so,
so not really a surprise because again they kind of
have that pre built chemistry they've been together.

Speaker 1 (01:45:25):
By the way, that roster of.

Speaker 2 (01:45:27):
Players, it's Zicky Dexter in Asia, like I said, it's
the X and Makers for people that have not or
don't know who Green Stago is. Makers was their organ
then they got dropped before this recent lanted champs. But
Asia had a pretty pop off match day, had twenty
five kills, So big shout out to him, and like
I said, a very experienced roster, so somebody I wouldn't

(01:45:50):
really be too surprised does well Atland. Their biggest problem
is that kind of when they get to that middle
to late stages, they kind of fall off a little
bit when the Lobbies get a little bit tougher. I think,
especially early on, it's the team we can definitely be
looking forward to at New Orleans. But again big shout
out to them. SWQ which is a big org over
there and has had a roster in a pack South

(01:46:11):
for quite a while. They take second place on that
match day, so shout out to them. And if we
just move over to the overall standings for the region
real quick, we've got Green Stego is actually in first place.
Lonely let Go, which again is Roy's team that I
just mentioned with Sohoji, they are in second. X and Y,

(01:46:32):
which again has been a team that's been in a
couple of recent lands who love to run it down,
They are in third, dream Fire is in fourth, and
then rival E Sports sits in fifth. Notable teams over
in that particular region Soul which is Sharky, Jesco, and
Legacy They sit ninth overall. VK Gaming, who we've seen
to do very well at a couple of lands, and

(01:46:53):
a team I love to shout out with how they've
played two back to back top ten performances of the
most recent lands over in Germany and and they set
tenth overall. And then kind of going further down the
list of big surprise so far has been Team Berger
which is Strafing, Flame, Player K and Pricey. They sit
twenty first overall. I think as time goes on they

(01:47:14):
will pick up their form, but right now as a
team that definitely has some questions going into this upcoming
Land and further into Pro League. For those who didn't know,
Pricey joined the roster of player K and Strafing plame
after the most recent Land, so probably still getting some
chemistry things figured out, but hopefully they can maybe figure
that out at the upcoming Land.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
There we go, So, ladies and gents, that is our
regional recap. Shout out to down for having all the
teams on lock. That is the ALGs around the world.
We're gonna throw it on down to the heart to heart.
Almost choked. We're gonna throw it on down to the
heart to heart and send it on the rest. Hold on,
We're gonna throw it on down to the heart to

(01:47:59):
heart and say you guys on the rest of your week.
Let's get it all right, Ladies and gents. That was
Zach Mazer. That was the regional roundup, and now we
are going to send you guys off with the heart
to heart. Ladies and gents, it is heard to hard
time Jumba. What happened? What's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:48:18):
Dude there?

Speaker 4 (01:48:19):
I can't come back here with anything but leafs up
to oh in the series, I don't know how many
people care about fucking hockey. But I'm ninety ounces of
most in Canadian deep after watching Max Domy clutch up

(01:48:39):
a OT winner when I don't know if we deserved it.
We didn't play very good in the second and mediocre
in the third after an amazing first.

Speaker 3 (01:48:49):
But I'm buzzing right now.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
I'm buzzing in every sense of the word.

Speaker 4 (01:48:53):
Every sense, and like so I would say that, you know,
and maybe I'm feeling little sent mental, but like, you
know what, at the same time, that Zach Maser interview
was good.

Speaker 3 (01:49:03):
I thought it was really good.

Speaker 4 (01:49:05):
Yeah, shut Zach, Like that was a He gave us
a lot of deep insight, which is pretty sick.

Speaker 3 (01:49:11):
We don't get that all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:49:13):
Yeah, I mean that that interview, by every sense of
the word, every circumstance of it was a little bit wild,
you know, the timing of it and everything. But I
can't really go into too much detail on it. But
we'll just say the boys are dedicated. The boys are
dedicated big time to making sure we can try to
get some interviews going because I don't know what it is,

(01:49:34):
but like the last it's been like it's been harder
than normal and not in the way where it's like
people don't want to be on the show or anything.
It's more just like the timing of everything has not
been working out. Like every I remember the first year,
and I think, you know what it is. I really
do think the video aspect changes certain things because when

(01:49:56):
we were strictly audio, it was so easy to just
get some need to hop on and just talk for
a while, for sure, And then when the video aspect
gets involved and they're like, oh do I need a cam,
Like okay, let me get this out, and then it
just changes things. But yeah, dude, like super excited to
get that one and talk to Zach again. It had
almost been like three years since we talked to him,
so to get all of this info coming together, Bro,

(01:50:17):
there was so much to talk about. I almost completely
forgot about Supporo because we didn't even ask to until
the end. So it was a fair insane to.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
Be fair, Like, we got a land in a week, yeaight,
so to think of like a previous land when we
have a land in a week, it's kind of hard.
Like this land came up really fast, and the like
the next land after that is gonna be really fast.
And then we might not have a land for a
really long time, so it's a little bit of a
jarring experience. But yeah, like it's just like long story
short to say, like it makes sense that we almost

(01:50:48):
forgot about it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:48):
But yeah, it was good. It was good, And shout
out to Zach for hopping on.

Speaker 4 (01:50:52):
The last thing I will quickly say is that I'm
about to rank. I'm gonna tell the podcast this podcast secret.
I'm about to go rank with uh Connor and Jay,
and I'm gonna do my best to try and hide
I have drank too much beer tonight. So that's I
hope that Connor and Jay listen to this two days
later and be like, no fucking wonder we lost one
hundred and fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:51:15):
I mean a lot for New Orleans with the boys, bro,
So yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:51:18):
You just had my buddies all told me they're like,
just don't drink.

Speaker 4 (01:51:21):
I was like, I am going to be in New
Orleans with an avalanche and Dallas fan, an La fan,
and if the Leafs go to like game five, game six, me,
who's a Toronto fan, the amount of cours like I
will drink that weekend will be.

Speaker 3 (01:51:37):
On another level.

Speaker 4 (01:51:38):
Anyways, Yeah, anyways, it's don't drinks, don't drink out.

Speaker 1 (01:51:42):
The shout out to the maple leafs. Shout out to
the maple leafs. I watched that first period fell asleep,
you know, I woke up to I think it was
like I literally woke up as it happened, and uh,
I had it playing on my phone next to me.

Speaker 3 (01:51:56):
So we scored on ourselves twice.

Speaker 1 (01:51:58):
Yeah, it was. I didn't see any of the two goals.
I just saw the overtime winner, so I haven't even
looked back at those yet. But insane it was with me.
Can the leafs?

Speaker 2 (01:52:08):
Uh don, I'll say real quick before I get in
my heart to heart. There really isn't many things like
playoff hockey, especially when it gets into overtime, like I remember,
like Iowa one hundred percent admit I was a fair
Weather Blackhawks fan when they were winning Stanley Cups. Can't
say I've watched the damn hockey game for the most
part since then. But playoff hockey is insane. That watching
that goal back was absolutely insane. See everybody erupt so

(01:52:31):
big shot to playoff Hockey'll give you guys credit for that.

Speaker 4 (01:52:34):
It's a Tuesday, and I walked into the bar and
they go, do you want the dining room And I go, no,
I want the bar, and they go, we don't have
any room, and.

Speaker 3 (01:52:41):
I'm like, I walked in an hour early.

Speaker 5 (01:52:44):
I go, I need the bar.

Speaker 4 (01:52:45):
I'm like, I'm I was about to walk out, and
then I goes we got seats like literally on the bar,
like like the fucking table, and I was like, yeah,
that's fine with me. I was not going to sit
in the dining room where the TVs are fucking fifteen
thousand feet away from me to screw that.

Speaker 3 (01:52:59):
Yeah, Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
And the fans are locked. Man, you gotta give them credit.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
And to be fair, if anybody thinks we're talking hockey
too much during the middle of the playoffs, I have
always done this on the show. Every time the playoffs
come around. On the show, I always make my heart
to heart about my.

Speaker 4 (01:53:16):
Viewers need to understand that I don't think there is
anything as exciting as match point format as the NHL Playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:53:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:53:23):
I might sound crazy like.

Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
That comparing an esport to a real sport, but like, seriously,
NHL Playoffs match point format only two.

Speaker 3 (01:53:31):
Things that get me up, Like for fucking that excitement
lovel excitement exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:53:34):
So I've always done this on the show, so don't
be all up in a tizzy about it, because we've
always done this, always done this. I remember trying to
when when the Avalanche were on their Stanley Cup run,
trying to record this show the other show and still
watch the games was so stressful, Like, it was absolutely
one of the hardest I would say, what was that

(01:53:55):
two weeks of my life where I'm like trying to
catch the Stanley Cup final, but I also still have
obligations wild wild stuff down your heart's heart.

Speaker 2 (01:54:05):
Yeah, I just say, really, this week is just about
getting locked in, man, Like I'm really excited for Land
coming up obviously with the boys, but now that there's
a little extra to it, helping out the you know,
and being on team nice guys here also nice guy
don crazy twitter name. Absolutely love it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:23):
Team so I did.

Speaker 2 (01:54:24):
Yeah, I ended up changing it, so yeah it's a
solid name, man, But but no, I yeah, just really
this taking this week to help the boys get locked
in and ready to go. And again, the nice thing
about these guys is that it's gonna be a lot
more about the vibe and having a good time versus
you know, having to get first place. Like obviously they're
gonna go.

Speaker 5 (01:54:43):
Out and do what they can to go win.

Speaker 2 (01:54:45):
But at the end of the day, like just having
this experience going to Land, you know, having a team
to root for, really having two teams to root for
with our boy Burke. There's a lot of cool things
coming up for this week, and like I said, I'm
gonna be locked in studying as much as I can
about the teams, figuring out you know, pois they might
end up playing out of So just yeah, getting locked

(01:55:06):
in and just really excited for this next week to
go by and catch up with everybody down in New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (01:55:11):
Yeah, it's gonna be a great time. Cannot wait. Once again,
if you guys see us out there, don't be afraid
to say what's up and hello, because it's always fun
to see y'all. My heart to heart. This week, I
don't really have like anything crazy, but I will say
that I guess mine will be dedication and just you know,
trying each and every way to get better. I think

(01:55:33):
sometimes you have like a wake up call when you're
doing this type of stuff where you kind of get
into a groove of you know, you just get into
the same routine over and over and over again, and
when you don't change it, you can kind of start
to slack off in certain areas. And I think at
certain points, with not only this show, but like all
the shows that I do, I think I just got

(01:55:54):
into a place where I was like, Okay, I'm making
it work, so this should be fine. But that's just
not I don't think how I should be going about it.
I think I should always be pushing myself to go
further and further, And like today was a great example.
It's like I had to make a pretty big sacrifice
to get parts of this done today, And look, I'm
in I'm lucky, lucky enough to be in this situation

(01:56:15):
to be able to do something like that, so I
might as well take advantage of it. And so, you know,
I think back when this show had first began, there
was a lot of sacrifices I had to make as well,
just thinking back to that hal episode, the first one,
Like the amount of sleep I got, the amount of
times we were editing re editing, going through making sure
everything was perfect. It's like that, does you know it

(01:56:37):
wears on you a little bit, but in a good way.
Like it makes you remember what this was all for
and what this is all about, and the results speak
for themselves, and I just kind of have to get
back into that zone sometimes. And even though I might
lose a little bit of sleep here and there, or
I might lose some time, you know, doing important stuff
at home, it's also like I'm making sure I'm doing

(01:56:59):
the right things of the show, and I'm just happy
that we were able to, you know, get this thing
put together this week. So I guess my heart to
heart would be dedication this week. I hope the Avalanche
are dedicated to start winning some fucking games here pretty soon,
because I'm I'm not feeling good about our chances. I'm
not gonna be honest. I'm gonna be honest with you.
I don't know. I like, they have two pretty big

(01:57:19):
players missing and we're still tied one one going back
to Colorado. Like, I get that they're a great team,
but our roster's nothing to scoff at either. We got
to start putting wins together, man, I don't know. If
we don't come out of Colorado up three to one,
I'm gonna be like very disappointed because they're missing like
their best player in my opinion, So we got to

(01:57:42):
figure it out. We got to figure it out. We
got to figure it out big time. But that's where
I'm at with the NHL Playoffs. We're sitting at one
to one, jump as at two to oh and hopefully
our teams continue to be successful here as we get ready.

Speaker 3 (01:57:54):
I don't even know how to feel.

Speaker 1 (01:57:56):
So my thing is like, I at least want to
be able to watch at least one Leafs game with
Jumba in New Orleans. But you know, I don't know
how the schedule works if.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
We If we don't, I won't be upset because that
means my team.

Speaker 1 (01:58:11):
Yeah, yeah, it'll end up being good. But then at
the very least we'll we'll be able to see an
LA Kings game for Troy, probably an Avalanche game for me.
So we'll be able to have some games and then,
like some of the other series are still fun. I
guess I just I just want to be able to
see watch games with all the boys, because those are

(01:58:31):
the best times to watch games like those are those
are some of the funnest games, as long as Brian
doesn't try to like do some bullshit where he jinxes
it as long as that happens, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:58:40):
I just want to throw out in a couple of weeks,
I don't know when, but I'm just I can't even
tell you guys privately what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:58:49):
Uh, but like in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna
have a crazy hard heart something I think is pretty cool.
So yeah, I hope, I hope.

Speaker 1 (01:58:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
Unfortunately, heart to heart. I'm actually teasing a heart to heart.

Speaker 4 (01:59:03):
I can't even tell you, guys, like offline, okay, like
I'm not a leptic, but like, once I do, it's
gonna be pretty sick.

Speaker 1 (01:59:10):
Okay, I'm excited for that. I don't even know what.

Speaker 4 (01:59:12):
I don't know you guys are gonna think. I know
you guys won't guess what it is, but like, nonetheless,
it's gonna be cool.

Speaker 1 (01:59:18):
Okay. So my last thing I wanted to ask, should
I do something with the Beard before New Orleans or
should I leave this thing?

Speaker 4 (01:59:27):
It's up to you about how you think the Beard
is performing for the Alps if you think that, because
like I was about the trim today but like now
and I might have to be on camera during the
land but I'm like, do I like leave it because
of the leaves.

Speaker 3 (01:59:42):
I'm fucked. I'm fucked.

Speaker 5 (01:59:44):
See.

Speaker 1 (01:59:44):
My thing is is like Caitlin brought out the same
thing to me. She was like, well, if you shave it,
you guys are gonna lose. And I was like, well,
we already lost a game that we probably should.

Speaker 3 (01:59:53):
Have, so like you probably should because like you lost.

Speaker 4 (01:59:56):
If I lost it, I shave Now I have a
really hard back, Like do I want to look fucking
dirty on on camera.

Speaker 3 (02:00:05):
Where like thirty thousand people might be watching, or do
I wanna do I wanna.

Speaker 1 (02:00:10):
Shave now let's just say let's just say this, though
god forbid they lose the next two games. At least
if they did, you would have your answer be like
this beer is doing nothing for me.

Speaker 3 (02:00:18):
Yeahday Thursday will tell me.

Speaker 1 (02:00:21):
Yeah, like for sure if the Avalanche lose tomorrow, like
this thing's going away anyway. I I might not fully
trim it down, but I might just at least get
it shaped because it's got some straggling.

Speaker 3 (02:00:34):
Yeah, you gotta do it, you gotta Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:00:37):
So that's what. Okay, that was that was my question.
All right, Just as long as we get that out
of the way, that's that's the one thing I was
wondering about. All right, ladies and gents, once again, thanks
thanks again for hopping along and watching this one with us.
Shout out to Zach Maser for hopping in and saying,
what's up on the show. Let us know what you
think about the regional recap where we go through all
the different regions and talk about what's going on in Apac,

(02:00:59):
South Apac and E M E A. And then we
can't wait to see you guys in New Orleans. We're
gonna have some fun stuff over there. We're obviously gonna
have some episodes coming out. And then I think me,
Don and Jumba are potentially going to do a quicker
version of the series we did right before Sapporo where
we go through and talk about every single team. We're

(02:01:21):
not probably not gonna talk about every single team, but
we're gonna outline, uh, you know, some of the teams
you should be watching for in each of the.

Speaker 3 (02:01:27):
Groups, so we will not be talking about every single tea.

Speaker 4 (02:01:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:01:33):
Yeah, it's one hundred and sixty. So there's and there's
gonna be somewhere you just have no clue, like, what's
what's happening? So We're gonna have some more content coming
out pretty soon. Thank you guys for tuning in. As always,
we will catch you guys next week for another episode
of the Apex of Podcast. Say y'all.

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