esports
Team EnVyUs had a rough Spring Split, but Apollo and crew are turning it around in Summer.
Team EnVyUs was on struggle street in its sophomore split in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). EnVy managed a meager three wins compared to its 15 losses and narrowly avoided relegation at the end of the 2017 Spring Split. EnVy was home to the Korean All-LCS jungler, LirA, and commanded the most explosive early game in the league, but just couldn’t capitalize. However, after returning to the LCS, EnVy changed for the better and is turning the LCS on its head as it performs far above expectation.
After three weeks of LCS play, EnVy has already matched its win total from last split with a 3-3 record and is Top 5 in the league Meanwhile, EnVy is just one win behind the perennial finalists Team SoloMid and tied with the other North American favorite, Cloud9. EnVy’s AD carry Apollo is generally looked upon as one of the weaker players, but has actually been one of the top performing AD carries to start the split and key to EnVy’s strong start.
Still, it wasn’t all about him these last few weeks. EnVy’s cohesion has significantly improved and Apollo sees EnVy’s success as a result of his team simply coming together. “We felt like we did a pretty job. Even though we went 1-1 the first week, it showed that we improved since last split. Coming into this week, we did the same practice and didn’t really overthink anything. We focused a lot more on teamplay and it felt good.”
The turnaround
Oftentimes, when a team performs as poorly as EnVy did, the practice regimen is always questioned. In esports, practice tends to be focused on grinding out compositions and gaining experience in a variety of scenarios. That kind of practice focuses heavily on execution and results so it’s easy for teams to get hung up on the little things. “So, the biggest thing is that last split our review for scrims were just a lot different. We focused a lot on individual mistakes and didn’t really see the bigger picture in some of our games. When we reviewed this season, we just focused a lot on wave manipulation, communication and teamplay. It doesn’t really matter if you make a mistake individually — it matters if we remain on the same page.”
That mindset explains a lot of EnVy’s misfortune in the Spring Split. Individually, EnVy could do great things and the team succeeded in the early game because of it. That was pretty much all the team had to offer though. In recent weeks, however, EnVy has controlled its leads and slowly inched itself toward wins with sophisticated map control, often splitting into side lanes and putting pressure on both towers and Baron. The team has even proven to be able to come back and win from a deficit. “Now, it just feels more controlled and fluid and it has a lot to do with us thinking more about what happens with our waves and teamfights.”
EnVy didn’t just change their practice mindset before stepping back into the LCS this split; they also made a key roster change. Underperforming mid laner Ninja was dropped from the team and EnVy acquired former P1 mid laner Pirean to steady the team. So far he’s brought great stability into the mid lane and has contributed a great amount to nV’s side lane focused game with his pressure from roaming.
Apollo believes that Pirean brings more to the team than just that though. “So, it’s obviously more difficult [communicating] because we have three Koreans, but Seraph’s English is good. I think the least talkative of the three is LirA and we kind of made it that everyone talks more to fill in that gap. Last split, Ninja didn’t talk as much, but now Pirean, even though he’s Korean, speaks a decent amount of English and speaks a lot in game.” Pirean adds stability in both gameplay and comms, showing that he really has made quite the difference for EnVy and their performances.
Speaking of Koreans, North American organizations have moved forward to not only import the players, but the staff that supports them. As a team flailing in the LCS, EnVy called upon former Starcraft 2 player Violet to aid the team in ways more than gameplay. “We brought him on because we had problems dealing with our mental health and staying focused. We pretty much brought him on as a type of lifestyle coach.” A laser-focused EnVy has proven its merit and it can only go up from here.
Apollo's own growth
Apollo has dealt with a fair amount of criticism in his career, so being on the 3-15 EnVy didn’t aid his reputation. Many times he was labeled as “too passive” or just flat-out ineffectual, but Apollo believes that boiling his gameplay down to a few words just doesn’t tell the whole story. “I don’t know if saying ‘passive’ or ‘aggressive’ is correct. I think of it as playing the situation incorrectly or correctly. There’s different variables that come into play when you say something like that.”
Surrounding players and champions usually dictate in-game performance, but Apollo sees things differently. “Sometimes, maybe the team isn't confident so I can’t play confidently either. There are some players that can deal with the situations better and I agree with that. Maybe I didn’t’ play some of the situations as well in past games. Right now though, I feel like I can play better and more confidently because my team is.”
EnVy’s clean teamplay has made way for Apollo’s success and right now he feels like his team has his back. He’s done well on the standard utility AD carries like Ashe and Varus, but has also brought out the big guns with his Caitlyn as he deals heaps of damage in the late game. Perhaps through EnVy’s success, Apollo can break through the conception that he is merely average.
Is EnVy's success here to stay?
Despite the changes that EnVy has made and the current success the team has enjoyed, it still once was a team that went 3-15 over the course of a split. There’s a lot of questions if EnVy will remain a top team, but Apollo isn’t too concerned with that right now. “I don’t really know [about EnVy’s relative strength]. I don’t think too much about it. We’re just doing better than last split, you know? We’re really riding on that.” It bears repeating that EnVy has already managed as many wins as last split so really, the context of the LCS is in the background for Apollo and Team EnVyUs. They’re happy to be competing.
Determining team strength isn’t an exact science so worrying about where you’re placed in the grand scheme of things doesn’t make much of a difference. “A lot of the teams are pretty close to each other right now and there’s a lot of back and forth games. Immortals beat TSM so we were the underdogs against them, for example.” Underdogs, top of the LCS, bottom of the LCS ... EnVy's position doesn’t really matter to Apollo. “It’s just hard to say who’s the bottom half and who is the top half. We’re just focusing on ourselves now.” EnVy and Apollo are coming into their own after a whole split of struggles. So right now, continuing to focus on themselves is the way to go.
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