July 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Welcome To The Apex Podcast! Where we keep you in the loop of everything Competitve Apex Legends.
If you would like to join our discord and follow our socials here: https://linktr.ee/theapexthepod
Please review and rate the Apex Podcast, as it is one of the best things to support us as a podcast! Thank you so much for listening, we appreciate you.
For business inquiries: theapexthepodcast@gmail.com
What are you doing down here? Go subscribe!
If you would like to join our discord and follow our socials here: https://linktr.ee/theapexthepod
Please review and rate the Apex Podcast, as it is one of the best things to support us as a podcast! Thank you so much for listening, we appreciate you.
For business inquiries: theapexthepodcast@gmail.com
What are you doing down here? Go subscribe!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everyone, Welcome back to another episode of The
Apex the podcast. Ladies and Gentlemen. We are back, and
this one probably won't be seen by a lot of
people because this is late. We're doing this really late.
Yesterday we did a lunch break pod to get it
out early so people could check it out. This one.
I was tired of shit, and I know Donnie was
tired of shit. Trying to watch ten games while also
(00:23):
actively trying to work and not get in trouble is
very difficult, Like it's super hard. And then from Don's perspective,
when you are watching all of the games, streaming beforehand,
streaming afterhand, lots of just it's just a weird kind
of tired, you know, it's like a it just weighs
on you. It's a lot. But we're gonna get this
out because I do feel like we weren't gonna put
(00:45):
out an episode at all today. But I just felt
like I got to actually see all ten games, and
I have a lot of thoughts about it. I got
to get my thoughts out. Don I'm sure you're in
the same boat, but let's get into it here. Pool
be this one.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Pull number b puoll number B.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Was super interesting. And the reason why is yesterday we
had seen in Pool A, you know, the top couple
teams had soaked up all the points for most of
the lobby, and we said that Pool BEE, you could
see the same outcome happening. What we didn't see was
that one team was going to soak up all the
points from the entire lobby. Alliance is incredible. Effect specifically
(01:25):
is incredible, and I don't want to take anything away
from the other two on that team, but holy shit,
it was an absolute baller performance from Effect, insane. I
think through match four he had already tied the pool
A highest kill leader, I think, which was a gent
and I think he ended with thirty six kills. Thirty
(01:45):
five thirty six kills. I'm not one hundred percent sure,
thirty nine. I'm fucked up. That's wrong, way wrong, crazy.
I did the best I could, you know, but it
was an insane performance. Alliance was cruising the entire day.
They got two wins, they got a second, a third,
a fourth, and then in the final game, I mean,
(02:06):
they had already gotten the draft position they needed, they
got everything they could have possibly wanted out the day,
and they just had fucking died nineteenth, So they were incredible, Dawn,
I don't even know what else to say.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, the first thing I'll start with is, like,
what's it like being in Hockins's shoes? Bro, Like, you've
got a lucky You've got effect who are just absolute
ballers on roller right, and it's just gotta be so
much fun some days to be like you know what,
like I can almost sit here and just not say
(02:42):
shit and we'll still get first place. Like that's almost
what it has to feel like sometimes, the way that
those two can play, because just their ability to play
together during fights and to just control a lobby, you know,
forced teams to go one way, nuke a team off
the map. I mean, it just it's it's gotta feels
surreal sometimes that because I think he even tweeted today
(03:03):
that like he really didn't have his best shot, but
it literally just felt like every time he called something,
the team in front of them would just die instantly.
So it's got to be a great feeling for Hawkis.
But on a serious note, though, like again I think
we had an expectation an alliance. Obviously it was gonna be,
you know, one of the two main contenders. But I
mean that performance they put on today, I mean it is,
(03:24):
you know, very comparative to what DZ has done in
the past. You know, where they've dominated group stages. I'm
very competitive like TSM at their peak, you know, when
they've dominated stages, tournaments at times. You know, we're really
approaching the conversation. I think that they've been good enough
long enough now that as long as they win another
couple of lands together, that they you know, they're one
(03:45):
of the best teams of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And dude, I would say that now, I would say,
I would honestly say that now. I like and I
know that, like, history won't look if they don't win
another one, right, history probably won't look as kindly. I mean,
they already have one one, so it doesn't really matter.
It'd be like like the Aaron Rodgers effect. Right, But
when you look at when we go back to Germany,
(04:07):
he actually snags onto a pathfinder zip line, right, And
I think they would have won that one, to be
honest with you, And then they get second place at
what the Open. I mean, they've consistently been at the
top of their game for so long now it's just insane.
The drop off in points is it's one thirty five
(04:28):
to eighty eight. That is the next closest team, Just incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Closest team played very well today.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Actually, I have a lot to say about the rest
of the top seven that made it in. All of
them played great, to be honest with you, and I
think there were some teams that didn't make it in
that also played pretty damn well. But oh my god, man,
like they bro you were. You would be watching a
team mid game and like they're in desperate need to
(04:57):
either get some points or they're just trying to solidify
a stabilize what ever it may be, and you just
see them in the kill feed. Oh like Alliance over
and over and over again. They didn't have to be
on them watching the team to see Alliance dominating. You
would just see them throughout the entire day. And and
then the one v three with Effect was was crazy.
Just one of those moments where it just shows the
(05:19):
skill difference and like where certain players are at comparative
to other players. I will say I believe that was
up against who was that? Who was it? It was
VK gaming, right, He didn't have a whole lot of
ammo left so he kind of had to pull out
the kraber. I thought he was going for a crazy clip,
but no, he just didn't have a whole lot of
(05:39):
AMO left, so he gets he gets the advantage of that.
But also, uh, it was a two v three going
into that, and they that's just at the end of
the day, it's like you you should win those, and
especially VK Gaming, which by the way, they played really
well today as well. They are moving on to the
finals like we expected them too, so nothing against them.
It's just crazy what Alliance can do.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And I even call it, like, you know, when we
saw Hawks get full killed, I was like, dude, there's
still a very good chance. I'd almost still call this
fifty to fifty at this point for Unlucky in Effect
to win this, just because of how good they are
creating creating openings. And yeah, as soon as you saw
the one member of VK kind of get isolated, you know,
when Effect jumped on it very quickly, they got so
much damage on top of him, and they were able
(06:18):
to get so much damage on the second guy, and
it just really flipped the fight back to where it
was a little bit more even ground. I do think
that VK maybe looks back and tries to stick that
res at the kind of the beginning of that last sequence,
and they could have maybe got another member up, but
you know that definitely hindsight twenty twenty probably situation with that.
But like you mentioned, you know, the one member of
(06:39):
VK that was up last only had the one clip
in the R nine, So it made sense to go
for the crab shot, right, you try to get like
a one to ten fifty whatever you can, maybe when
a head shot obviously to get the full kill. But
you know it just again it's just how good unlucky
an effect are as a duo. So then you know,
obviously then you add on one of the smartest lines
(07:01):
in APEX on top of that. Like, it's just literally
everything you can ask for in a roster, and they're
just so much fun to watch. They create so much
good content. I mean there's there is a time on
storm Point where again they don't really need the extra points,
but just because a team tried to walk up on
their back, they just kept literally following them so deep
into the zone and just being like you are not
going this way, like I don't care what you do,
(07:22):
Like you are gonna get pushed back as far as
we want you to go. And they just sat there
on the edge of zone for like thirty seconds, just
making that team leave.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, it was JDG.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah. It's just like the aura you have to have
of being like you're not fucking coming this way, Like
I would love to ever get to that point at
apex of my life if someone is actually generally that
scared to run away like that is. It's just it's
it's crazy, man, It's a It's a fun team to watch.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, So enough about Alliance here. They obviously won the
day one hundred and thirty five points. Let's go through
the rest of the teams that made the top seven.
They will be going into final Sunday. It is one
hundred thieves, Rock E Sports, S eight, U L Vertus,
pro VK, Game Me, and rival Esports. We're gonna get
to all those in a second. The bottom three teams
the teams that are eliminated early in this one, Unlimit, SBI,
(08:09):
E Sports, and Fusion. And one thing I think we
can say don is before we had started this and
we went through our preview, we had talked about teams
that didn't have a whole lot of experience that kind
of showed here today. There were some teams that just
these guys just did not have the experience. You look
at SBI Esports, they were being very they were very
impressive in Apac North, they just didn't have the ability,
(08:30):
they didn't have the the the experience, and and that's
kind of where it led them out to.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, I mean I had mentioned it, you know, I
was talking today and last night when I was kind
of previewing the group today that Apac North kind of
has been down as a region this year. You know,
especially we haven't really seen Fanatic being like the consistent
team we expect. There's also kind of some other org
it's like a rental order, you know, even crazier at Cooney.
Even though they qualified, they definitely had a rough split.
(08:58):
So it kind of left a lot of apps for
some teams to kind of ascend into those qualifying spots.
And don't get me wrong, SBI e Sports was a
great story during Pro League again, a team that really
nobody expected to kind of take the rein as the
number one seeded team coming into this tournament. But really,
when I looked back and was like trying to see
like where I thought some of these teams would land.
(09:20):
I think I even mentioned it during when we were
doing the tier list. I was like, I just don't
really see them being like a lock to make finals,
just because I didn't think everything they really did during
pro league would transfer over to this. Especially when you
get so many other good fighting teams around the world,
especially you know, coming out of the Americas, you throw
in the Alliances, you throw in some of the Apex
South teams that all can fight, it's very difficult for
(09:44):
SBI to kind of like brank what they had to
this to this overall, you know, tournament. So I'm still
surprised they're going home round one. I did think they
would still make losers finals. I thought a couple other
teams would be below them. But again, I think it
just goes to show, you know, just because you know
where you're finishing your pro league, it doesn't automatically mean
you know that you're going to be a top twenty
(10:04):
team in the world or whatever the case is. Because
you know, on the on the wrong day, you can
find yourself in the bottom three, and obviously in a
tournament like this like that means you get you got
it gets a helme.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So yep, it is experience matters. Experience matters, and that
going back over into the top seven, that's exactly what
the storyline was. If you look at the rest of
these teams, not a whole lot of them were performing
very well. There was a lot of them. Actually you
could take some issue with you look at the one
hundred Thieves, you look at the Vertics pros like, those
were some teams that were struggling going into this and
(10:37):
guess what the experience showed through. Let's start off with
one hundred Thieves here. First of all, we got to say,
incredible performance by Phony coming off of the appendicitis further
proof that the human body no longer needs the appendix.
He just really shoved it in their face. Honestly, you
could take that into any sort of like medical school
training when somebody asked, like, what about the appendix? You
just show Phony they don't need that, They don't need that,
(11:00):
and he showed it off. First game was incredible. That's
that's a storyline that is just so funny. It's just
absolutely hilarious. He comes in off of surgery wins the
first game, but one hundred Thieves played really really well today,
and credit to them. We had kind of shit on him,
not intentionally, like we wanted to believe that this could
be the team that they were going to be, but
(11:20):
we just hadn't seen it yet, and today we kind
of got to see it a little bit more, and
I think it you can kind of see why they
do the certain things they do. Having Evan on some
of those characters that he's on, it makes a lot
of sense when it comes into some of these situations here.
But one hundred Thieves played really really well today and
shout out to Phony.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Just want to say two things. One, I now have
back to back days that the jersey's worked, So I'm
calling that that shit's broken. If anybody throws shade at
me again for a jersey curse, just look at this
freaking tournament and honestly just fuck off, because yeah, I've
broken that shit. Second, for all those people that were
bitching about us putting them in the second row of
(12:01):
our tier list, you can also fuck off because they
played absolutely amazing. But now on a real note, though,
again I really thought, like you mentioned, you know, experience
does matter at the end of the day, and their
ability to come together through everything that happened with Phony
be able to focus up and get the job done again. Obviously,
(12:22):
getting that huge win in the first game definitely probably
relieved a lot of the stress that they could have
been feeling at the time. And I just think that
it was just a very professional day by one hundred Thieves,
Like they got off to the quick start like they
know they needed to, and then really just kind of
carried that momentum through the rest of the day. They
obviously weren't perfect every game, but it really felt like
you saw one hundred Thieves, you know, in a lot
(12:44):
of top eight, top six situations throughout the day, and
those you know, those points, especially when you get off
to that hot start, just stack over time and you
know eventually leads to you, you know, getting yourself into
the top seven. But they, you know, do one better
and finished and overall, you know, the second best, you know,
second best performance of any team, you know, best of
(13:06):
the rest. Kind of situation with Alliance doing so well,
and a big thing for them too that I think
we definitely need to mention is now Phony gets the
extra day off, he won't have to play it tomorrow,
so he can just kind of kick his feet up
and relax, allow his body to heal a little bit more,
you know, not have that extra anxiety and stress of
a match day. And I really think that could have
paid dividends.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Comes Sunday, yeah, and then we move on. This is
where that experience I think plays in because after they
won the first game, they get an eighth, thirteenth, and twenty,
and so they get dead last one of those games
and they're able to stabilize right after. They follow that
up with the third and second, and then they kind
of gets them right back into that zone because they
weren't necessary. Honestly, to be honest with you, none of
(13:47):
these teams that made the top seven were like a
lock for a long time. The only one was Alliance.
Everybody else was kind of like flirting with it, going
back and forth, and then they would eventually get like
that big game to them and keep them in. So
one hundred thieves. The experience shows through, they stabilize, they
get second place. On the day, I really wanted to
talk about Saul because this was a team that we
(14:10):
had highlighted a lot that I was very high on.
I wanted to see them do well that they were
the old guild roster back when MT was there. They
moved over. They bring in Sharky their saul now, and
they played terrible for the first I think four games
of this day. They were absolutely awful. They were eighteenth, fifteenth, eleventh,
(14:33):
and seventeenth, and they were in the relegation zone. And
I was absolutely shitting my pants because I was like,
I just talked up this team so badly. And then
they came in and what they ended up doing afterwards
was once again I think the experience showing through. They
get the first place, followed up with a fifth, then
a third, then a seventh and a second, and they
get a lot of KP on top of that. This
(14:54):
is a team that has a ton of experience as
well that at first was not showing what you'd want
them to show, and they eventually were able to come
and bring it through.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, And I think it's one of those things that
you know, a lot of people have talked about it.
When we get to these ten game sets or even
like eight game sets, you know, versus a normal six,
it usually gives the better teams the opportunity to show
that they're better. And I think anytime you get more
games and more opportunities for these better teams to you know,
(15:23):
have those pop offs that they're looking for. It always
is going to benefit you know, the better skilled teams
and the lobbies because when you obviously get like you know,
when we saw like in BLGs in the early rounds,
when we saw like like four game sets, how much
pressure there is on each individual game, right, So when
you get in these ten game series where there is
a lot more chances to kind of build your momentum
(15:45):
and really work your way into a series. You know,
Saul just seem to be that example, you know where like, yes,
they don't get off to the creative starts, but like
you mentioned, they have the composure, they have the experience
that you know, they know they have plenty of chances
to bounce back, and all it just takes is that
one game, you know, to really get them going. And
we really ended up seeing that. It was game five
(16:06):
where they ended up taking the win, which again not
a crazy kill win, you know, seven kills and getting
the twelve points so for nineteen total. But then just
after that you just kind of see them popping back
up more towards the top of the leader board. They
get a I believe in game six it was a
fifth place, but they had thirteen points, and then they
had a third place with seven points in the next
(16:28):
two games. The next game after that they get seventh
place with nine points, and you just really saw, you know,
again just kind of that latter half of the group
that they were they had found their flow and that really,
I mean basically continued all the way till the end,
and it was just again a very steady performance from
really being quite dog crap to start with. So big
(16:53):
hats off to them again, a team that also has
a huge backing from their fan base, which is gonna
be great to see, you know, the support that they're
going to get into this finals, and yeah, just big
shout out to the Sharky Jesco legacy and to Rogers
as their coach. Is a group that definitely deserves it
(17:14):
and should be a factor comes under now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
One of my favorite storylines to talk about and something
I was keeping a keen eye on throughout the entire
day was VP Vertus Pro. You got Zach Major, we
had lou and we had Slayer and I'll tell you what,
I don't know. I think maybe ten games is where
they want to be because you get you get both
sides of the VP experience, and we got both sides
of that today. They had a nineteenth and two eighteenths
(17:39):
and yet they're still in the top seven. Not only
were they top seven, they were tied for fourth fourth
with seventy six points, but they also had two wins
where you got to see them really pop off and
show what they're able to do and what they're capable of.
You got the whole thing, you got the the whole
kit and kaboodle with with with Vertus Pro. It was
fun to watch man. I had a great time, I
(18:00):
personally believe, and it's I mean, if you've watched the
show long enough, you know that this is what I
actually feel. I think it's just better when Zach Maser's
involved because there's just so much. You just never know
what you're gonna get. It's a mixed bag, and him
making it was perfect. It was it was awesome. I'm
feeling really good. But once again, it's a situation don
(18:20):
where we don't know what you're gonna get. You just
don't know what's gonna happen. You have a game where
they absolutely pop off and they are able to control
a part of the map to make it to where
it is like one hundred percent positive that they are
going to win the game. Then you also have a
situation where they swung in on a fight I think
against Crazy Raccoon and they died. I shit you not instantly,
(18:43):
like they must have got like I think they got
killed the quickest I've ever seen a full team get
killed in a game. So that's VP for you. That's
that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That is the VP experience. Yeah, it is, uh No,
I think to your point about Zach, Like, again, there's
been a lot of discourse on both sides of the equation, right,
you know, like, oh, like he's definitely one of the
better ijls. Oh he has way too many Maser moments
and his adult should I gel Like, You've seen a
lot of people have a lot of things to say,
And I think it's a testament to Zach because I
(19:17):
think there's a lot of people that, given how his
career has gone, maybe would have quit by now, or
maybe wouldn't be putting as much effort in. And I
don't really think you we have that question right about Zach.
You know, we know that he's going to care we
know that he's going to put in as much work
as possible. And I know some people complain about he
doesn't always stream. It's like just because he's not streaming
doesn't mean that he's not doing something right. Like these
(19:38):
most of these guys live and breathe APEX whether they're
streaming or not. And I think you definitely see, you know,
when Zach is on top of his game, you see
why you know his teams have gotten you know, he's
gotten a second place at an online championship. You know,
like there's there's skill there, it's just again it's always
trying to find like where is that consistency that's to
(20:00):
make them, you know, one of the best teams in
the world, because we literally saw a champ that they
finished sixth overall and they were right there trying to
extend the tournament. And you hope to see that version
obviously more often than not. And obviously there's been different
circumstances about his career why we haven't seen it. Obviously,
you know with the one tournament, you know they have
(20:20):
to contest with nasty squad that really kind of threw
them out of that final, and obviously you know they
kind of got a little bit of slow starting to
that Japan final, but ended up working their way back
and getting sixth. But again, I do think Apex is
definitely better win. Zach's teams are doing well, and I
definitely want to give Zach a big credit today because
I don't think people necessarily associate him with being like
(20:43):
a kill leader of his team or anything like that,
And he ended up having the most kills for VP today.
He ended up having eighteen kills, which I'm pretty sure
was like third or fourth in the lobby because it
was literally Effect, which is like all the way outside
of my camera because how many kills yet, and then
Effect and then like three people at eighteen. So Zach
definitely performed extremely well today. A Slayer also had a
(21:06):
very good day today, and then Lou bringing in a
very steady performance as well. This is a version of
VP that we want to see, and I really think
we have the chance to see that again in the final,
but like you mentioned, like they're not necessarily gonna have
ten games to figure it out, so we're gonna need
to see these top steady performances like they had in
Game one throughout the entire series, so we'll hopefully see that.
(21:30):
I'm excited and definitely hopeful for that. And hey man,
you can no longer at least be said that you've
cursed them into the ground at this point.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So no, I don't think. I don't think I even
affect them, to be honest with you, I think it's
just I think that's just the VP experience.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That was yeah, that was well before you had said yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think that's just always the VP experience. That's what
I respect the most about Zach two is like I've
interviewed him where he was playing for BBB that wasn't
as signed organization, and people were like looking down on
his accomplishments and and where he was at and then
watching him transform into where he's at now. And I
think he truly has one of the biggest what ifs
(22:08):
in Apex Legends history, which is I think it's two
of them, actually what if the the at the time
when Cloud nine, when he was playing with Cloud nine
and they got second, you could see the names of
the people who are like dying right like now, it'll
tell you the team that's dead, I think, But can
they even see that?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So they can't see individual players, but they can see
when teams die.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Okay, okay, okay, Yeah, because at the time they could
like see different names, and I always wondered, like what
if because they implemented something afterwards to where you couldn't
really tell. And I don't know if they made it
to where you could see the teams recently or if
it always had been the teams, but I know that
there was like a massive change.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, the biggest difference was that when somebody got knocked
in the past, you could see their name, so like
it would literally say like Imperial hal Box zero or
like in know wherever the case was. So then teams
would use that when they're on match point. It'd be like, oh,
I hear close gunfire and that says how went down
or how it got the kill, so we know we
go third that fight to try to ruin tsm's you know,
(23:09):
chances on match point. But yeah, all they see when
somebody gets killed is like player four A one two, five,
five five got knocked or whatever. But then you eventually
will see, like if a full team is wiped, you'll
see TSM is dead or you know, whatever the case is.
So that's the making change is just the individual like
player IDs.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So I've always wondered, like, what would have happened if
at that time nobody could see that for Cloud nine
because everybody knew they were on match point at that time.
The second one was what if they don't contest on
UH on seven, Like what if they just move on
from the contest on O seven? And what if there's
like because there's no POI draft at that time? Correct?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So I would just wonder, like, those are two big
what ifs for me, could completely change the out look.
It doesn't matter to me. I still think he's a
great player. I still like talking to him, and I
root for him every single time he's out there. So
big big what ifs for VP. But I'm glad that
he's made it here to this point now, so I'm
excited now. Don There were some other teams that did
not do well today, most notably the team I said
(24:09):
was gonna win. They're going to have to play again,
Shopify Rebellion, you win this round because they got ninth
place today. They actually had a chance at the very
end I thought that they had they if they could
have got some KP there and tried to win that game.
They were in a terrible spot, but who knows, maybe
maybe something happens and they're able to pull that one out,
But it was it was a weird day for Shopify.
(24:30):
A lot of early deaths and a lot of bad
situations they found themselves in. You also talk about Gaming Gladiators.
Gaming Gladiators was the team that was within the top
seven for a lot of the day and they kind
of fell out right at the very end there, and
then you got the NRGS, the team Liquids, and then
Twisted Minds down there was literally fighting for their life.
In the final game of this set. They were tied
(24:52):
at twenty eight points I believe with Unlimit and they're
able to get the thirty six Unlimited dies before them,
so they were safe at that point. But there was
a few teams that really struggle today. Which one kind
of stood out to you in your opinion?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I mean I think for me, like it really was,
I think Twists and Minds because like, even if they
didn't make finals, like directly, I thought they definitely would
at least be a lot safer than when it ended
up being. And you want to talk about obviously the
sequence we had yesterday with like the four teams being
tied and they all ended up fighting each other. This
one like probably wasn't as crazy, but it was still nuts.
(25:27):
Like I remember being on stream and just being like, wait,
Unlimit and Twisted Minds are both getting knocked on the
kill feed and they're both still tied on points, Like
what is gonna like who's gonna die Firstcause literally it
was around like that tenth place mark. So if one
of them died and then the other one stayed alive
long enough to get that one extra placement point for
getting tenth, then that, like again, that sequence would have
(25:48):
been insane. But yeah, you see Unlimit go down just
before Twists and Minds and they Twisted Minds lives a
little bit longer and gains a couple extra points. But yeah,
Twists and Minds was just a weird thing today. They
really didn't get too much context as to why they
were doing bad. But then when I was doing the
recap stream shout out to Klemana, they actually had pointed out.
(26:10):
ALB tweeted out a bit essentially saying that he was
playing a lot more of like backline anchor players today
and that is never going to explicit entered here happen again.
And I just think that just when I heard that,
I was just like, who came up with that decision? Like,
we know Alb as somebody that should be on the
(26:30):
front line making place or their team, you know, being
a kind of a co igl scout and now with Crook,
you know, trying to find positions to play fights, to
take whatever the case is. So when I looked back
and I'm like, oh, he was on cat, Oh he
was on ramp part, Like like why is he on
these characters? Like so I'm curious to see what you know,
it sounds like that could have been an ALB decision
(26:51):
and I just want to you know, I kind of
look at it and be like, bro, like why are
we overcooking? Like you guys have had you know, you
had a very solid open you know, outside of a
couple of weeks towards the end, you guys had a
really good pro league. Like why are we trying to
like massively change things now? You know, Like why are
we trying to put you know, one of your most
creative players and one of your best openers on a
(27:13):
back line. It just it didn't make sense to me,
and it sounds like they're gonna switch off of that
going into tomorrow, which I hope they do because I
think their only shot to get into the top six
is going to be out out there creating plays and
having a huge day for them. So I hope to
see that tomorrow. But again, for me, today, they just,
I mean, they just got nothing going and all. I
(27:35):
think a big part of that what was they just
didn't have their playmaker making plays and stuck on the
back line on characters that you can't really go make
plays with. So we'll hopefully see a big difference with
them tomorrow. So yeah, it's but like you mentioned, there
was a lot of teams that was quite the surprise
that weren't really even you know, flirting with the top seven,
(27:57):
or teams that kind of fell out of the top seven.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah. I think if I had to pick a team,
I'd probably go with the NRG. I really thought Energy
was cooking early. They got a third and a second
and it looked like they were going to cruise. But
this ten game set, this is what we talked about. Man,
It's like, if you can't keep it consistent, it's gonna
be really hard to stay up. And they never really
had like that diabolical game. You're like, oh my god,
like it's over. It was just that they weren't generating
(28:21):
enough KP to keep them up, and that's what we
were talking about, and they were getting into some decent spots.
But I do think that they missed a big opportunity
today with this lobby because going into the Last Chance,
it's fucking stacked, and I think a lot of teams
are gonna end up like wishing they had had a
better day. I think twisted minds comes to the forefront
as well, because you're looking at the pool. You were
(28:43):
in a difficult pool, but there wasn't like there was
opportunity for you to get in there. And going into
this instance, I understand, you have one more lobby to
play with if you don't get bottom three, and if
you're really confident you don't get bottom three, that's cool,
that's great. But also you're going into a very difficult
lobby in the last Chance I think more difficult sometimes
(29:04):
than some of the other last chance lobbies that you
get into. So you have to literally get top six.
That is going to be really fucking hard, really hard,
Like I know you only like you only got one
extra placement point today. Top seven was where you needed
to get. But you were dealing with some teams that
you knew for sure we're gonna get eliminated, and we
all knew that. Like, no disrespect to those teams, but
(29:26):
there was gonna be some teams for sure that we're
not going to perform to the same level as the
rest of the lobby. So missed opportunities. Man, it's gonna
be really hard tomorrow. I think both teams have the
opportunity to have the ability to do so. But it's
a big miss chance. Man, it's a really big miss
miss chance. So let's move into the last Chance lobby
here because I wanted to go through and kind of
talk about it just a little bit. It is stacked, Donnie,
(29:49):
it is fucking stacked. You've got al Kadzia, All Gamers, Global, Crazy, Raccoon,
E thirty six, Evos, Predator, Furia Gaming, Gladiators, Gen g Go, Next,
JD Gaming, Maus, noah S, Fox, nrg RRX, Sentinels, Shopify, Liquid, Nemesis, Orchid,
(30:11):
and Twisted Minds. Now, there's still some teams that you
could look at and be like, okay, they would have
to absolutely play out of their souls to be able
to get the top six here just basically just based
purely off a play style, right, you look at it
like a Team Nemesis. A Team Nemesis, they don't play
for KP most of the time. A lot of times
they're playing for the placement, So that's gonna be difficult
for them to get into a top six situation. But
(30:33):
there are a lot of really good shooting teams out
there that you're gonna have to be trying to handle.
You got the Alkadzias, the All Gamers Global, you got
the Furious, you got the Gaming Gladiers, the Gen G's.
Those are going to be really tough teams to beat.
I don't know how you feel like this lobby's gonna
play out, but I feel like we're gonna be missing
on some really big names. Some really big teams are
gonna miss out. I mean, that's obvious. But if you
(30:56):
had to put your top six together right now on
the spot, who do you got.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It's funny that you bring that up right away, because
I was doing that for the recap stream I did
a little bit ago, and I was legitimately telling the
chaff time, like I really feel like there's like fifteen
sixteen teams that have like a legitimate case. You could
be like, yeah, I could see a world where they
make this, you know, make this top six. Really the
only teams like for me that I think will struggle.
(31:23):
I think Evos again, I just don't think their play
style is really going to play to where they can
get into the top six. RX I feel the same way,
or Kid I feel the same way, And I think
this version of the way of how Go Next played
things out today, I do think they're also going to struggle.
Really everybody else, I feel like there's a case. I know,
even like Sentinels, how much they struggled. The biggest thing
(31:44):
for me, I just remember like what they've played like
before this, and you know, during this split, if they
just have that one day where they can kind of
rekindle that, I just I can see a world where
they do it again. I think it's a very low chance.
But I think really outside those four teams I mentioned,
everybody else has case. That being said, I think what
I would consider three locks for me, I think it's
(32:05):
gonna be Shopify, all Gamers and Energy. I just think
with those rosters there's just way too much experience and
way too much talent for those three teams not to qualify.
And I think for me, that'll be an absolutely huge
upset if they don't. So those three, I think, for sure,
I feel like are gonna get in. I think my
other three teams when I'm looking at this, when all
(32:26):
said and done, I think Fury is going to find
a way. I feel like when they have their backs
up against the wall a lot of times in these situations,
they have found ways to get out of these situations.
I mean, we saw even like with Kean, you know,
everything that happened there during the group stages. You know,
Maddison Knock just found another gear and just absolutely fragged
(32:47):
out the rest of that lobby. And I think they're
going to kind of rally behind that, and I think
they're going to find a way into finals. And then
the other two teams. I've got is E thirty six
and I've got Alcacia is kind of my wildcard. I
think we're gonna see al Kasia their actual version of
what this team could be. I think that there again,
(33:08):
there's a ton of experience there that they should be
able to handle this situation and be prepared to go,
and I just I have a very good feeling that
they will bounce back and do and do what needs
to get done. And I think for E thirty six,
I just think that with their play style and with
the puis that they got, I just feel a lot
(33:28):
more confident about how things will go for them. But again,
I could trade out E thirty six for you know JD,
you know JD Gaming, with how wealth they fought today.
I could trade out E thirty six for Crazy Raccoon
with how well Crazy Raccoon fought today. You know, Gaming
Gladiators on the right day need a nemesis on the
right day. I mean, there's just so many different scenarios
(33:50):
that we are literally just guessing. Yeah, Like we're literally discussing.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I'm going to follow up. I'm gonna go Shopify,
I'm gonna go Furya, I'm going to go a g G.
I know, I I noticed you left them off. I'm
gonna go a g G, And then I'm gonna go
Gaming Gladiators, jen G and probably probably NRG to round
(34:16):
it out. I think I think a lot of those
teams have a ton of experience, right, and that's what
we were talking about in that first that that first
part of the show is the experience carried a lot
of these teams at the end of the day, and
there are some teams out there who played a long time,
but these are the teams that are that have been
the heavy hitters. I would be really, really sad if
we don't see like a Furia or an NRG make it.
(34:39):
I'd be like desperate because first of all, we got
the news that Timmy's retiring. Who knows if that's gonna
actually happen because there's probably still champs, but you know
that's gonna suck. And then for Fury, I mean, I've
been following them for a long time, their n A,
I'm privy to them, so that's gonna that's gonna suck.
And then Shopify, I mean, come on, man, there my
I picked them. Do you know how I'm gonna get crucified.
(35:02):
I'm gonna get crucified on.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Train that they make at the finals.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Bro, It's just gonna be so bad. Honestly, it'd be
hilarious if they didn't because I already know what's gonna happen.
But yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be interesting, man.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
It'd be interesting to see.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Sorry, I just feel I just feel like a lot
of teams miss their opportunity and it sucks, man, Like,
I feel like a lot of teams had a great
opportunity in their pool and they just fucked it. Whatever
it may be. There were some weird situations like Furia
obviously had the game with like Keon who who, you know,
he had like not a panic attack, but he had like,
(35:40):
you know, anxiety, had he had something going on where
he didn't didn't eat right, and it kind of slowed
them down. And it's like, maybe they win that game, right,
they have forty seven points. The cut off was fifty eight,
doesn't get him that much closer, but who knows, you know,
Like I don't know, It's just it's crazy, man, and
Enter and E thirty six only missed. They're cut off
by two point points, right, So it's like, dude, there's
(36:02):
just so much up in the air right now. But
I'm excited to see what goes down tomorrow, ladies, And
just will probably stop it there, because you know, we
could probably talk ourselves in circles here for the next
couple of minutes or hours days Ian to.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Say real quick just before we get let go, I
do want to give a huge shout out to the
APAX South region though I feel like a lot of
people have not really tooken them seriously outside of like
the players that we've gotten from Australia right with you know,
Dark zero and Walty and the boys like that. But
you get three a PAX out teams with s a U,
l VIK Gaming and rival Esports, I think being the
(36:37):
biggest surprise for people. They all qualified directly to finals,
So big shout out to them. Just want to you know, again,
I have said it, I think that they're the second
best region right now and I think you know between
them and they obviously had another team from yesterday qualify,
so already to have four of your eight teams qualified
into finals directly when you only have the eight slots
(36:58):
is a huge kudos to uh that region.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Last thing, Don and I'm glad you brought this up.
Just teams making it to finals, dude, This Finals lobby, listen,
the open was cool. The Open had a lot of
cool things that went down. It was great. I got
to see the boys awesome. That Finals Lobby couldn't hold
a candle to this finals like these names one hundred Thieves, Alliance, Fanatic, Navvy,
(37:25):
n I, P R O C S a U L, Falcons,
TSM Vertus, pro Dude VK Gate Bro. We have ourselves
a heathy. We don't even have lobby, Bro, we don't
even have the full lobby yet. We don't even have
the full lobby yet.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, I mean, really, the only two teams I think
that you could have made an argument I think that
are big surprises right now would be and Wolves.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Those were the ones I didn't say, Yeah, you know,
it was really two. I didn't say, but.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Like again, you've got a Premier League logo on one
of them. You got around for a while forever. Yeah,
So yeah it is. Yeah, It's absolutely stacked and a
lot of amazing talent, and we still got six more
editions to be at it. It's gonna be. I'm excited
to stream it. I can't wait to probably lose my
voice at the worst time because I know I'm already
(38:12):
freaking dying right now, and I still have three more
streams at a minimum to go. So yeah, but I'm excited. Bro,
it's gonna be. It's gonna be a hell of a weekend.
And tomorrow is just gonna be like I'm not mentally
prepared for tomorrow, Like it's gonna be such a blove bat.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
We're basically we recorded this pod just to speak into
the void because it's so close already to when the
games are gonna start. We just wanted to talk Apex
out and we're glad if you did watch. We're glad
you did watch. Uh, thank you guys for tuning in.
We'll catch you guys tomorrow for tomorrow's pod. That one
will be much more prompt because you know, obviously it's
a weekend and I don't have to work, and don
(38:46):
doesn't have to work, and we can just get in
there and record our shit, so that one will be
much more prompt. We'll have all the breakdowns for that one, ladies,
And just think you guys for tuning in. Say ya,
What's up everyone, Welcome back to another episode of The
Apex the podcast. Ladies and Gentlemen. We are back, and
this one probably won't be seen by a lot of
people because this is late. We're doing this really late.
Yesterday we did a lunch break pod to get it
out early so people could check it out. This one.
I was tired of shit, and I know Donnie was
tired of shit. Trying to watch ten games while also
(00:23):
actively trying to work and not get in trouble is
very difficult, Like it's super hard. And then from Don's perspective,
when you are watching all of the games, streaming beforehand,
streaming afterhand, lots of just it's just a weird kind
of tired, you know, it's like a it just weighs
on you. It's a lot. But we're gonna get this
out because I do feel like we weren't gonna put
(00:45):
out an episode at all today. But I just felt
like I got to actually see all ten games, and
I have a lot of thoughts about it. I got
to get my thoughts out. Don I'm sure you're in
the same boat, but let's get into it here. Pool
be this one.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Pull number b puoll number B.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Was super interesting. And the reason why is yesterday we
had seen in Pool A, you know, the top couple
teams had soaked up all the points for most of
the lobby, and we said that Pool BEE, you could
see the same outcome happening. What we didn't see was
that one team was going to soak up all the
points from the entire lobby. Alliance is incredible. Effect specifically
(01:25):
is incredible, and I don't want to take anything away
from the other two on that team, but holy shit,
it was an absolute baller performance from Effect, insane. I
think through match four he had already tied the pool
A highest kill leader, I think, which was a gent
and I think he ended with thirty six kills. Thirty
(01:45):
five thirty six kills. I'm not one hundred percent sure,
thirty nine. I'm fucked up. That's wrong, way wrong, crazy.
I did the best I could, you know, but it
was an insane performance. Alliance was cruising the entire day.
They got two wins, they got a second, a third,
a fourth, and then in the final game, I mean,
(02:06):
they had already gotten the draft position they needed, they
got everything they could have possibly wanted out the day,
and they just had fucking died nineteenth, So they were incredible, Dawn,
I don't even know what else to say.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, the first thing I'll start with is, like,
what's it like being in Hockins's shoes? Bro, Like, you've
got a lucky You've got effect who are just absolute
ballers on roller right, and it's just gotta be so
much fun some days to be like you know what,
like I can almost sit here and just not say
(02:42):
shit and we'll still get first place. Like that's almost
what it has to feel like sometimes, the way that
those two can play, because just their ability to play
together during fights and to just control a lobby, you know,
forced teams to go one way, nuke a team off
the map. I mean, it just it's it's gotta feels
surreal sometimes that because I think he even tweeted today
(03:03):
that like he really didn't have his best shot, but
it literally just felt like every time he called something,
the team in front of them would just die instantly.
So it's got to be a great feeling for Hawkis.
But on a serious note, though, like again I think
we had an expectation an alliance. Obviously it was gonna be,
you know, one of the two main contenders. But I
mean that performance they put on today, I mean it is,
(03:24):
you know, very comparative to what DZ has done in
the past. You know, where they've dominated group stages. I'm
very competitive like TSM at their peak, you know, when
they've dominated stages, tournaments at times. You know, we're really
approaching the conversation. I think that they've been good enough
long enough now that as long as they win another
couple of lands together, that they you know, they're one
(03:45):
of the best teams of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And dude, I would say that now, I would say,
I would honestly say that now. I like and I
know that, like, history won't look if they don't win
another one, right, history probably won't look as kindly. I mean,
they already have one one, so it doesn't really matter.
It'd be like like the Aaron Rodgers effect. Right, But
when you look at when we go back to Germany,
(04:07):
he actually snags onto a pathfinder zip line, right, And
I think they would have won that one, to be
honest with you, And then they get second place at
what the Open. I mean, they've consistently been at the
top of their game for so long now it's just insane.
The drop off in points is it's one thirty five
(04:28):
to eighty eight. That is the next closest team, Just incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Closest team played very well today.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Actually, I have a lot to say about the rest
of the top seven that made it in. All of
them played great, to be honest with you, and I
think there were some teams that didn't make it in
that also played pretty damn well. But oh my god, man,
like they bro you were. You would be watching a
team mid game and like they're in desperate need to
(04:57):
either get some points or they're just trying to solidify
a stabilize what ever it may be, and you just
see them in the kill feed. Oh like Alliance over
and over and over again. They didn't have to be
on them watching the team to see Alliance dominating. You
would just see them throughout the entire day. And and
then the one v three with Effect was was crazy.
Just one of those moments where it just shows the
(05:19):
skill difference and like where certain players are at comparative
to other players. I will say I believe that was
up against who was that? Who was it? It was
VK gaming, right, He didn't have a whole lot of
ammo left so he kind of had to pull out
the kraber. I thought he was going for a crazy clip,
but no, he just didn't have a whole lot of
(05:39):
AMO left, so he gets he gets the advantage of that.
But also, uh, it was a two v three going
into that, and they that's just at the end of
the day, it's like you you should win those, and
especially VK Gaming, which by the way, they played really
well today as well. They are moving on to the
finals like we expected them too, so nothing against them.
It's just crazy what Alliance can do.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
And I even call it, like, you know, when we
saw Hawks get full killed, I was like, dude, there's
still a very good chance. I'd almost still call this
fifty to fifty at this point for Unlucky in Effect
to win this, just because of how good they are
creating creating openings. And yeah, as soon as you saw
the one member of VK kind of get isolated, you know,
when Effect jumped on it very quickly, they got so
much damage on top of him, and they were able
(06:18):
to get so much damage on the second guy, and
it just really flipped the fight back to where it
was a little bit more even ground. I do think
that VK maybe looks back and tries to stick that
res at the kind of the beginning of that last sequence,
and they could have maybe got another member up, but
you know that definitely hindsight twenty twenty probably situation with that.
But like you mentioned, you know, the one member of
(06:39):
VK that was up last only had the one clip
in the R nine, So it made sense to go
for the crab shot, right, you try to get like
a one to ten fifty whatever you can, maybe when
a head shot obviously to get the full kill. But
you know it just again it's just how good unlucky
an effect are as a duo. So then you know,
obviously then you add on one of the smartest lines
(07:01):
in APEX on top of that. Like, it's just literally
everything you can ask for in a roster, and they're
just so much fun to watch. They create so much
good content. I mean there's there is a time on
storm Point where again they don't really need the extra points,
but just because a team tried to walk up on
their back, they just kept literally following them so deep
into the zone and just being like you are not
going this way, like I don't care what you do,
(07:22):
Like you are gonna get pushed back as far as
we want you to go. And they just sat there
on the edge of zone for like thirty seconds, just
making that team leave.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, it was JDG.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah. It's just like the aura you have to have
of being like you're not fucking coming this way, Like
I would love to ever get to that point at
apex of my life if someone is actually generally that
scared to run away like that is. It's just it's
it's crazy, man, It's a It's a fun team to watch.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, So enough about Alliance here. They obviously won the
day one hundred and thirty five points. Let's go through
the rest of the teams that made the top seven.
They will be going into final Sunday. It is one
hundred thieves, Rock E Sports, S eight, U L Vertus,
pro VK, Game Me, and rival Esports. We're gonna get
to all those in a second. The bottom three teams
the teams that are eliminated early in this one, Unlimit, SBI,
(08:09):
E Sports, and Fusion. And one thing I think we
can say don is before we had started this and
we went through our preview, we had talked about teams
that didn't have a whole lot of experience that kind
of showed here today. There were some teams that just
these guys just did not have the experience. You look
at SBI Esports, they were being very they were very
impressive in Apac North, they just didn't have the ability,
(08:30):
they didn't have the the the experience, and and that's
kind of where it led them out to.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, I mean I had mentioned it, you know, I
was talking today and last night when I was kind
of previewing the group today that Apac North kind of
has been down as a region this year. You know,
especially we haven't really seen Fanatic being like the consistent
team we expect. There's also kind of some other org
it's like a rental order, you know, even crazier at Cooney.
Even though they qualified, they definitely had a rough split.
(08:58):
So it kind of left a lot of apps for
some teams to kind of ascend into those qualifying spots.
And don't get me wrong, SBI e Sports was a
great story during Pro League again, a team that really
nobody expected to kind of take the rein as the
number one seeded team coming into this tournament. But really,
when I looked back and was like trying to see
like where I thought some of these teams would land.
(09:20):
I think I even mentioned it during when we were
doing the tier list. I was like, I just don't
really see them being like a lock to make finals,
just because I didn't think everything they really did during
pro league would transfer over to this. Especially when you
get so many other good fighting teams around the world,
especially you know, coming out of the Americas, you throw
in the Alliances, you throw in some of the Apex
South teams that all can fight, it's very difficult for
(09:44):
SBI to kind of like brank what they had to
this to this overall, you know, tournament. So I'm still
surprised they're going home round one. I did think they
would still make losers finals. I thought a couple other
teams would be below them. But again, I think it
just goes to show, you know, just because you know
where you're finishing your pro league, it doesn't automatically mean
you know that you're going to be a top twenty
(10:04):
team in the world or whatever the case is. Because
you know, on the on the wrong day, you can
find yourself in the bottom three, and obviously in a
tournament like this like that means you get you got
it gets a helme.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So yep, it is experience matters. Experience matters, and that
going back over into the top seven, that's exactly what
the storyline was. If you look at the rest of
these teams, not a whole lot of them were performing
very well. There was a lot of them. Actually you
could take some issue with you look at the one
hundred Thieves, you look at the Vertics pros like, those
were some teams that were struggling going into this and
(10:37):
guess what the experience showed through. Let's start off with
one hundred Thieves here. First of all, we got to say,
incredible performance by Phony coming off of the appendicitis further
proof that the human body no longer needs the appendix.
He just really shoved it in their face. Honestly, you
could take that into any sort of like medical school
training when somebody asked, like, what about the appendix? You
just show Phony they don't need that, They don't need that,
(11:00):
and he showed it off. First game was incredible. That's
that's a storyline that is just so funny. It's just
absolutely hilarious. He comes in off of surgery wins the
first game, but one hundred Thieves played really really well today,
and credit to them. We had kind of shit on him,
not intentionally, like we wanted to believe that this could
be the team that they were going to be, but
(11:20):
we just hadn't seen it yet, and today we kind
of got to see it a little bit more, and
I think it you can kind of see why they
do the certain things they do. Having Evan on some
of those characters that he's on, it makes a lot
of sense when it comes into some of these situations here.
But one hundred Thieves played really really well today and
shout out to Phony.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Just want to say two things. One, I now have
back to back days that the jersey's worked, So I'm
calling that that shit's broken. If anybody throws shade at
me again for a jersey curse, just look at this
freaking tournament and honestly just fuck off, because yeah, I've
broken that shit. Second, for all those people that were
bitching about us putting them in the second row of
(12:01):
our tier list, you can also fuck off because they
played absolutely amazing. But now on a real note, though,
again I really thought, like you mentioned, you know, experience
does matter at the end of the day, and their
ability to come together through everything that happened with Phony
be able to focus up and get the job done again. Obviously,
(12:22):
getting that huge win in the first game definitely probably
relieved a lot of the stress that they could have
been feeling at the time. And I just think that
it was just a very professional day by one hundred Thieves,
Like they got off to the quick start like they
know they needed to, and then really just kind of
carried that momentum through the rest of the day. They
obviously weren't perfect every game, but it really felt like
you saw one hundred Thieves, you know, in a lot
(12:44):
of top eight, top six situations throughout the day, and
those you know, those points, especially when you get off
to that hot start, just stack over time and you
know eventually leads to you, you know, getting yourself into
the top seven. But they, you know, do one better
and finished and overall, you know, the second best, you know,
second best performance of any team, you know, best of
(13:06):
the rest. Kind of situation with Alliance doing so well,
and a big thing for them too that I think
we definitely need to mention is now Phony gets the
extra day off, he won't have to play it tomorrow,
so he can just kind of kick his feet up
and relax, allow his body to heal a little bit more,
you know, not have that extra anxiety and stress of
a match day. And I really think that could have
paid dividends.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Comes Sunday, yeah, and then we move on. This is
where that experience I think plays in because after they
won the first game, they get an eighth, thirteenth, and twenty,
and so they get dead last one of those games
and they're able to stabilize right after. They follow that
up with the third and second, and then they kind
of gets them right back into that zone because they
weren't necessary. Honestly, to be honest with you, none of
(13:47):
these teams that made the top seven were like a
lock for a long time. The only one was Alliance.
Everybody else was kind of like flirting with it, going
back and forth, and then they would eventually get like
that big game to them and keep them in. So
one hundred thieves. The experience shows through, they stabilize, they
get second place. On the day, I really wanted to
talk about Saul because this was a team that we
(14:10):
had highlighted a lot that I was very high on.
I wanted to see them do well that they were
the old guild roster back when MT was there. They
moved over. They bring in Sharky their saul now, and
they played terrible for the first I think four games
of this day. They were absolutely awful. They were eighteenth, fifteenth, eleventh,
(14:33):
and seventeenth, and they were in the relegation zone. And
I was absolutely shitting my pants because I was like,
I just talked up this team so badly. And then
they came in and what they ended up doing afterwards
was once again I think the experience showing through. They
get the first place, followed up with a fifth, then
a third, then a seventh and a second, and they
get a lot of KP on top of that. This
(14:54):
is a team that has a ton of experience as
well that at first was not showing what you'd want
them to show, and they eventually were able to come
and bring it through.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, And I think it's one of those things that
you know, a lot of people have talked about it.
When we get to these ten game sets or even
like eight game sets, you know, versus a normal six,
it usually gives the better teams the opportunity to show
that they're better. And I think anytime you get more
games and more opportunities for these better teams to you know,
(15:23):
have those pop offs that they're looking for. It always
is going to benefit you know, the better skilled teams
and the lobbies because when you obviously get like you know,
when we saw like in BLGs in the early rounds,
when we saw like like four game sets, how much
pressure there is on each individual game, right, So when
you get in these ten game series where there is
a lot more chances to kind of build your momentum
(15:45):
and really work your way into a series. You know,
Saul just seem to be that example, you know where like, yes,
they don't get off to the creative starts, but like
you mentioned, they have the composure, they have the experience
that you know, they know they have plenty of chances
to bounce back, and all it just takes is that
one game, you know, to really get them going. And
we really ended up seeing that. It was game five
(16:06):
where they ended up taking the win, which again not
a crazy kill win, you know, seven kills and getting
the twelve points so for nineteen total. But then just
after that you just kind of see them popping back
up more towards the top of the leader board. They
get a I believe in game six it was a
fifth place, but they had thirteen points, and then they
had a third place with seven points in the next
(16:28):
two games. The next game after that they get seventh
place with nine points, and you just really saw, you know,
again just kind of that latter half of the group
that they were they had found their flow and that really,
I mean basically continued all the way till the end,
and it was just again a very steady performance from
really being quite dog crap to start with. So big
(16:53):
hats off to them again, a team that also has
a huge backing from their fan base, which is gonna
be great to see, you know, the support that they're
going to get into this finals, and yeah, just big
shout out to the Sharky Jesco legacy and to Rogers
as their coach. Is a group that definitely deserves it
(17:14):
and should be a factor comes under now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
One of my favorite storylines to talk about and something
I was keeping a keen eye on throughout the entire
day was VP Vertus Pro. You got Zach Major, we
had lou and we had Slayer and I'll tell you what,
I don't know. I think maybe ten games is where
they want to be because you get you get both
sides of the VP experience, and we got both sides
of that today. They had a nineteenth and two eighteenths
(17:39):
and yet they're still in the top seven. Not only
were they top seven, they were tied for fourth fourth
with seventy six points, but they also had two wins
where you got to see them really pop off and
show what they're able to do and what they're capable of.
You got the whole thing, you got the the whole
kit and kaboodle with with with Vertus Pro. It was
fun to watch man. I had a great time, I
(18:00):
personally believe, and it's I mean, if you've watched the
show long enough, you know that this is what I
actually feel. I think it's just better when Zach Maser's
involved because there's just so much. You just never know
what you're gonna get. It's a mixed bag, and him
making it was perfect. It was it was awesome. I'm
feeling really good. But once again, it's a situation don
(18:20):
where we don't know what you're gonna get. You just
don't know what's gonna happen. You have a game where
they absolutely pop off and they are able to control
a part of the map to make it to where
it is like one hundred percent positive that they are
going to win the game. Then you also have a
situation where they swung in on a fight I think
against Crazy Raccoon and they died. I shit you not instantly,
(18:43):
like they must have got like I think they got
killed the quickest I've ever seen a full team get
killed in a game. So that's VP for you. That's
that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
That is the VP experience. Yeah, it is, uh No,
I think to your point about Zach, Like, again, there's
been a lot of discourse on both sides of the equation, right,
you know, like, oh, like he's definitely one of the
better ijls. Oh he has way too many Maser moments
and his adult should I gel Like, You've seen a
lot of people have a lot of things to say,
And I think it's a testament to Zach because I
(19:17):
think there's a lot of people that, given how his
career has gone, maybe would have quit by now, or
maybe wouldn't be putting as much effort in. And I
don't really think you we have that question right about Zach.
You know, we know that he's going to care we
know that he's going to put in as much work
as possible. And I know some people complain about he
doesn't always stream. It's like just because he's not streaming
doesn't mean that he's not doing something right. Like these
(19:38):
most of these guys live and breathe APEX whether they're
streaming or not. And I think you definitely see, you know,
when Zach is on top of his game, you see
why you know his teams have gotten you know, he's
gotten a second place at an online championship. You know,
like there's there's skill there, it's just again it's always
trying to find like where is that consistency that's to
(20:00):
make them, you know, one of the best teams in
the world, because we literally saw a champ that they
finished sixth overall and they were right there trying to
extend the tournament. And you hope to see that version
obviously more often than not. And obviously there's been different
circumstances about his career why we haven't seen it. Obviously,
you know with the one tournament, you know they have
(20:20):
to contest with nasty squad that really kind of threw
them out of that final, and obviously you know they
kind of got a little bit of slow starting to
that Japan final, but ended up working their way back
and getting sixth. But again, I do think Apex is
definitely better win. Zach's teams are doing well, and I
definitely want to give Zach a big credit today because
I don't think people necessarily associate him with being like
(20:43):
a kill leader of his team or anything like that,
And he ended up having the most kills for VP today.
He ended up having eighteen kills, which I'm pretty sure
was like third or fourth in the lobby because it
was literally Effect, which is like all the way outside
of my camera because how many kills yet, and then
Effect and then like three people at eighteen. So Zach
definitely performed extremely well today. A Slayer also had a
(21:06):
very good day today, and then Lou bringing in a
very steady performance as well. This is a version of
VP that we want to see, and I really think
we have the chance to see that again in the final,
but like you mentioned, like they're not necessarily gonna have
ten games to figure it out, so we're gonna need
to see these top steady performances like they had in
Game one throughout the entire series, so we'll hopefully see that.
(21:30):
I'm excited and definitely hopeful for that. And hey man,
you can no longer at least be said that you've
cursed them into the ground at this point.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So no, I don't think. I don't think I even
affect them, to be honest with you, I think it's
just I think that's just the VP experience.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That was yeah, that was well before you had said yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think that's just always the VP experience. That's what
I respect the most about Zach two is like I've
interviewed him where he was playing for BBB that wasn't
as signed organization, and people were like looking down on
his accomplishments and and where he was at and then
watching him transform into where he's at now. And I
think he truly has one of the biggest what ifs
(22:08):
in Apex Legends history, which is I think it's two
of them, actually what if the the at the time
when Cloud nine, when he was playing with Cloud nine
and they got second, you could see the names of
the people who are like dying right like now, it'll
tell you the team that's dead, I think, But can
they even see that?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So they can't see individual players, but they can see
when teams die.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Okay, okay, okay, Yeah, because at the time they could
like see different names, and I always wondered, like what
if because they implemented something afterwards to where you couldn't
really tell. And I don't know if they made it
to where you could see the teams recently or if
it always had been the teams, but I know that
there was like a massive change.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, the biggest difference was that when somebody got knocked
in the past, you could see their name, so like
it would literally say like Imperial hal Box zero or
like in know wherever the case was. So then teams
would use that when they're on match point. It'd be like, oh,
I hear close gunfire and that says how went down
or how it got the kill, so we know we
go third that fight to try to ruin tsm's you know,
(23:09):
chances on match point. But yeah, all they see when
somebody gets killed is like player four A one two, five,
five five got knocked or whatever. But then you eventually
will see, like if a full team is wiped, you'll
see TSM is dead or you know, whatever the case is.
So that's the making change is just the individual like
player IDs.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So I've always wondered, like, what would have happened if
at that time nobody could see that for Cloud nine
because everybody knew they were on match point at that time.
The second one was what if they don't contest on
UH on seven, Like what if they just move on
from the contest on O seven? And what if there's
like because there's no POI draft at that time? Correct?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So I would just wonder, like, those are two big
what ifs for me, could completely change the out look.
It doesn't matter to me. I still think he's a
great player. I still like talking to him, and I
root for him every single time he's out there. So
big big what ifs for VP. But I'm glad that
he's made it here to this point now, so I'm
excited now. Don There were some other teams that did
not do well today, most notably the team I said
(24:09):
was gonna win. They're going to have to play again,
Shopify Rebellion, you win this round because they got ninth
place today. They actually had a chance at the very
end I thought that they had they if they could
have got some KP there and tried to win that game.
They were in a terrible spot, but who knows, maybe
maybe something happens and they're able to pull that one out,
But it was it was a weird day for Shopify.
(24:30):
A lot of early deaths and a lot of bad
situations they found themselves in. You also talk about Gaming Gladiators.
Gaming Gladiators was the team that was within the top
seven for a lot of the day and they kind
of fell out right at the very end there, and
then you got the NRGS, the team Liquids, and then
Twisted Minds down there was literally fighting for their life.
In the final game of this set. They were tied
(24:52):
at twenty eight points I believe with Unlimit and they're
able to get the thirty six Unlimited dies before them,
so they were safe at that point. But there was
a few teams that really struggle today. Which one kind
of stood out to you in your opinion?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I mean I think for me, like it really was,
I think Twists and Minds because like, even if they
didn't make finals, like directly, I thought they definitely would
at least be a lot safer than when it ended
up being. And you want to talk about obviously the
sequence we had yesterday with like the four teams being
tied and they all ended up fighting each other. This
one like probably wasn't as crazy, but it was still nuts.
(25:27):
Like I remember being on stream and just being like, wait,
Unlimit and Twisted Minds are both getting knocked on the
kill feed and they're both still tied on points, Like
what is gonna like who's gonna die Firstcause literally it
was around like that tenth place mark. So if one
of them died and then the other one stayed alive
long enough to get that one extra placement point for
getting tenth, then that, like again, that sequence would have
(25:48):
been insane. But yeah, you see Unlimit go down just
before Twists and Minds and they Twisted Minds lives a
little bit longer and gains a couple extra points. But yeah,
Twists and Minds was just a weird thing today. They
really didn't get too much context as to why they
were doing bad. But then when I was doing the
recap stream shout out to Klemana, they actually had pointed out.
(26:10):
ALB tweeted out a bit essentially saying that he was
playing a lot more of like backline anchor players today
and that is never going to explicit entered here happen again.
And I just think that just when I heard that,
I was just like, who came up with that decision? Like,
we know Alb as somebody that should be on the
(26:30):
front line making place or their team, you know, being
a kind of a co igl scout and now with Crook,
you know, trying to find positions to play fights, to
take whatever the case is. So when I looked back
and I'm like, oh, he was on cat, Oh he
was on ramp part, Like like why is he on
these characters? Like so I'm curious to see what you know,
it sounds like that could have been an ALB decision
(26:51):
and I just want to you know, I kind of
look at it and be like, bro, like why are
we overcooking? Like you guys have had you know, you
had a very solid open you know, outside of a
couple of weeks towards the end, you guys had a
really good pro league. Like why are we trying to
like massively change things now? You know, Like why are
we trying to put you know, one of your most
creative players and one of your best openers on a
(27:13):
back line. It just it didn't make sense to me,
and it sounds like they're gonna switch off of that
going into tomorrow, which I hope they do because I
think their only shot to get into the top six
is going to be out out there creating plays and
having a huge day for them. So I hope to
see that tomorrow. But again, for me, today, they just,
I mean, they just got nothing going and all. I
(27:35):
think a big part of that what was they just
didn't have their playmaker making plays and stuck on the
back line on characters that you can't really go make
plays with. So we'll hopefully see a big difference with
them tomorrow. So yeah, it's but like you mentioned, there
was a lot of teams that was quite the surprise
that weren't really even you know, flirting with the top seven,
(27:57):
or teams that kind of fell out of the top seven.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah. I think if I had to pick a team,
I'd probably go with the NRG. I really thought Energy
was cooking early. They got a third and a second
and it looked like they were going to cruise. But
this ten game set, this is what we talked about. Man,
It's like, if you can't keep it consistent, it's gonna
be really hard to stay up. And they never really
had like that diabolical game. You're like, oh my god,
like it's over. It was just that they weren't generating
(28:21):
enough KP to keep them up, and that's what we
were talking about, and they were getting into some decent spots.
But I do think that they missed a big opportunity
today with this lobby because going into the Last Chance,
it's fucking stacked, and I think a lot of teams
are gonna end up like wishing they had had a
better day. I think twisted minds comes to the forefront
as well, because you're looking at the pool. You were
(28:43):
in a difficult pool, but there wasn't like there was
opportunity for you to get in there. And going into
this instance, I understand, you have one more lobby to
play with if you don't get bottom three, and if
you're really confident you don't get bottom three, that's cool,
that's great. But also you're going into a very difficult
lobby in the last Chance I think more difficult sometimes
(29:04):
than some of the other last chance lobbies that you
get into. So you have to literally get top six.
That is going to be really fucking hard, really hard,
Like I know you only like you only got one
extra placement point today. Top seven was where you needed
to get. But you were dealing with some teams that
you knew for sure we're gonna get eliminated, and we
all knew that. Like, no disrespect to those teams, but
(29:26):
there was gonna be some teams for sure that we're
not going to perform to the same level as the
rest of the lobby. So missed opportunities. Man, it's gonna
be really hard tomorrow. I think both teams have the
opportunity to have the ability to do so. But it's
a big miss chance. Man, it's a really big miss
miss chance. So let's move into the last Chance lobby
here because I wanted to go through and kind of
talk about it just a little bit. It is stacked, Donnie,
(29:49):
it is fucking stacked. You've got al Kadzia, All Gamers, Global, Crazy, Raccoon,
E thirty six, Evos, Predator, Furia Gaming, Gladiators, Gen g Go, Next,
JD Gaming, Maus, noah S, Fox, nrg RRX, Sentinels, Shopify, Liquid, Nemesis, Orchid,
(30:11):
and Twisted Minds. Now, there's still some teams that you
could look at and be like, okay, they would have
to absolutely play out of their souls to be able
to get the top six here just basically just based
purely off a play style, right, you look at it
like a Team Nemesis. A Team Nemesis, they don't play
for KP most of the time. A lot of times
they're playing for the placement, So that's gonna be difficult
for them to get into a top six situation. But
(30:33):
there are a lot of really good shooting teams out
there that you're gonna have to be trying to handle.
You got the Alkadzias, the All Gamers Global, you got
the Furious, you got the Gaming Gladiers, the Gen G's.
Those are going to be really tough teams to beat.
I don't know how you feel like this lobby's gonna
play out, but I feel like we're gonna be missing
on some really big names. Some really big teams are
gonna miss out. I mean, that's obvious. But if you
(30:56):
had to put your top six together right now on
the spot, who do you got.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It's funny that you bring that up right away, because
I was doing that for the recap stream I did
a little bit ago, and I was legitimately telling the
chaff time, like I really feel like there's like fifteen
sixteen teams that have like a legitimate case. You could
be like, yeah, I could see a world where they
make this, you know, make this top six. Really the
only teams like for me that I think will struggle.
(31:23):
I think Evos again, I just don't think their play
style is really going to play to where they can
get into the top six. RX I feel the same way,
or Kid I feel the same way, And I think
this version of the way of how Go Next played
things out today, I do think they're also going to struggle.
Really everybody else, I feel like there's a case. I know,
even like Sentinels, how much they struggled. The biggest thing
(31:44):
for me, I just remember like what they've played like
before this, and you know, during this split, if they
just have that one day where they can kind of
rekindle that, I just I can see a world where
they do it again. I think it's a very low chance.
But I think really outside those four teams I mentioned,
everybody else has case. That being said, I think what
I would consider three locks for me, I think it's
(32:05):
gonna be Shopify, all Gamers and Energy. I just think
with those rosters there's just way too much experience and
way too much talent for those three teams not to qualify.
And I think for me, that'll be an absolutely huge
upset if they don't. So those three, I think, for sure,
I feel like are gonna get in. I think my
other three teams when I'm looking at this, when all
(32:26):
said and done, I think Fury is going to find
a way. I feel like when they have their backs
up against the wall a lot of times in these situations,
they have found ways to get out of these situations.
I mean, we saw even like with Kean, you know,
everything that happened there during the group stages. You know,
Maddison Knock just found another gear and just absolutely fragged
(32:47):
out the rest of that lobby. And I think they're
going to kind of rally behind that, and I think
they're going to find a way into finals. And then
the other two teams. I've got is E thirty six
and I've got Alcacia is kind of my wildcard. I
think we're gonna see al Kasia their actual version of
what this team could be. I think that there again,
(33:08):
there's a ton of experience there that they should be
able to handle this situation and be prepared to go,
and I just I have a very good feeling that
they will bounce back and do and do what needs
to get done. And I think for E thirty six,
I just think that with their play style and with
the puis that they got, I just feel a lot
(33:28):
more confident about how things will go for them. But again,
I could trade out E thirty six for you know JD,
you know JD Gaming, with how wealth they fought today.
I could trade out E thirty six for Crazy Raccoon
with how well Crazy Raccoon fought today. You know, Gaming
Gladiators on the right day need a nemesis on the
right day. I mean, there's just so many different scenarios
(33:50):
that we are literally just guessing. Yeah, Like we're literally discussing.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, I'm going to follow up. I'm gonna go Shopify,
I'm gonna go Furya, I'm going to go a g G.
I know, I I noticed you left them off. I'm
gonna go a g G, And then I'm gonna go
Gaming Gladiators, jen G and probably probably NRG to round
(34:16):
it out. I think I think a lot of those
teams have a ton of experience, right, and that's what
we were talking about in that first that that first
part of the show is the experience carried a lot
of these teams at the end of the day, and
there are some teams out there who played a long time,
but these are the teams that are that have been
the heavy hitters. I would be really, really sad if
we don't see like a Furia or an NRG make it.
(34:39):
I'd be like desperate because first of all, we got
the news that Timmy's retiring. Who knows if that's gonna
actually happen because there's probably still champs, but you know
that's gonna suck. And then for Fury, I mean, I've
been following them for a long time, their n A,
I'm privy to them, so that's gonna that's gonna suck.
And then Shopify, I mean, come on, man, there my
I picked them. Do you know how I'm gonna get crucified.
(35:02):
I'm gonna get crucified on.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Train that they make at the finals.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Bro, It's just gonna be so bad. Honestly, it'd be
hilarious if they didn't because I already know what's gonna happen.
But yeah, it's gonna be It's gonna be interesting, man.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
It'd be interesting to see.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Sorry, I just feel I just feel like a lot
of teams miss their opportunity and it sucks, man, Like,
I feel like a lot of teams had a great
opportunity in their pool and they just fucked it. Whatever
it may be. There were some weird situations like Furia
obviously had the game with like Keon who who, you know,
he had like not a panic attack, but he had like,
(35:40):
you know, anxiety, had he had something going on where
he didn't didn't eat right, and it kind of slowed
them down. And it's like, maybe they win that game, right,
they have forty seven points. The cut off was fifty eight,
doesn't get him that much closer, but who knows, you know,
Like I don't know, It's just it's crazy, man, and
Enter and E thirty six only missed. They're cut off
by two point points, right, So it's like, dude, there's
(36:02):
just so much up in the air right now. But
I'm excited to see what goes down tomorrow, ladies, And
just will probably stop it there, because you know, we
could probably talk ourselves in circles here for the next
couple of minutes or hours days Ian to.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Say real quick just before we get let go, I
do want to give a huge shout out to the
APAX South region though I feel like a lot of
people have not really tooken them seriously outside of like
the players that we've gotten from Australia right with you know,
Dark zero and Walty and the boys like that. But
you get three a PAX out teams with s a U,
l VIK Gaming and rival Esports, I think being the
(36:37):
biggest surprise for people. They all qualified directly to finals,
So big shout out to them. Just want to you know, again,
I have said it, I think that they're the second
best region right now and I think you know between
them and they obviously had another team from yesterday qualify,
so already to have four of your eight teams qualified
into finals directly when you only have the eight slots
(36:58):
is a huge kudos to uh that region.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Last thing, Don and I'm glad you brought this up.
Just teams making it to finals, dude, This Finals lobby, listen,
the open was cool. The Open had a lot of
cool things that went down. It was great. I got
to see the boys awesome. That Finals Lobby couldn't hold
a candle to this finals like these names one hundred Thieves, Alliance, Fanatic, Navvy,
(37:25):
n I, P R O C S a U L, Falcons,
TSM Vertus, pro Dude VK Gate Bro. We have ourselves
a heathy. We don't even have lobby, Bro, we don't
even have the full lobby yet. We don't even have
the full lobby yet.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, I mean, really, the only two teams I think
that you could have made an argument I think that
are big surprises right now would be and Wolves.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Those were the ones I didn't say, Yeah, you know,
it was really two. I didn't say, but.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Like again, you've got a Premier League logo on one
of them. You got around for a while forever. Yeah,
So yeah it is. Yeah, It's absolutely stacked and a
lot of amazing talent, and we still got six more
editions to be at it. It's gonna be. I'm excited
to stream it. I can't wait to probably lose my
voice at the worst time because I know I'm already
(38:12):
freaking dying right now, and I still have three more
streams at a minimum to go. So yeah, but I'm excited. Bro,
it's gonna be. It's gonna be a hell of a weekend.
And tomorrow is just gonna be like I'm not mentally
prepared for tomorrow, Like it's gonna be such a blove bat.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
We're basically we recorded this pod just to speak into
the void because it's so close already to when the
games are gonna start. We just wanted to talk Apex
out and we're glad if you did watch. We're glad
you did watch. Uh, thank you guys for tuning in.
We'll catch you guys tomorrow for tomorrow's pod. That one
will be much more prompt because you know, obviously it's
a weekend and I don't have to work, and don
(38:46):
doesn't have to work, and we can just get in
there and record our shit, so that one will be
much more prompt. We'll have all the breakdowns for that one, ladies,
And just think you guys for tuning in. Say ya,
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!