After their previous loss against TSM, 100 Thieves took their revenge and tied up the score.



With only a hand full of games left until playoffs, 100 Thieves seems to have gotten their groove back. Although 100 Thieves lost to TL, they bounced right back to secure a win against TSM. In the midst of all this, we cannot ignore the only player in the NA LCS to bring out Thresh, Blitz, and Bard. That player is none other than Aphromoo.



Having a fairly large champion pool compared to other support players in the League, Aphromoo has shown time and time again why he is one of the best supports in NA. Carrying his team to victory with his hooks and picks, Aphromoo is keeping the possibilities of playoffs for his team well in reach.



After the game against TSM, Inven Global interviewed 100 Thieves’ support, Aphromoo. Let’s see what Aphromoo has to say about TSM, patch 8.4, and Yeezys.

¤ How do you feel about your win against TSM?



Eh, it was alright. Not as clean as I would have liked it. I think TSM definitely played the TSM style, so it was a little rough for us. But, we worked it out. I’m glad we won today since we lost a game against Team Liquid earlier.





¤ Was or is there any rivalry between 100 Thieves and TSM? This is because the last time you guys went up against TSM, Zven commented on 100 Thieves’ draft with TF as poorly thought out.



No, not really. I agree our draft was pretty bad for our first game against TSM as well.







¤ Talking a bit about the new 8.4 patch, the Xayah Rakan combo is now highly contested in competitive play. Why is it that this combo is so heavily contested now compared to how it was before?



This is because, Riot nerfed a lot of the AD carries. Mainly Kog’maw and Kalista. Since these two champions were really good against every other AD in the champion pool, Xayah Rakan just shoots to the top. Kalista is not viable anymore, and she would always counter Rakan. It is hard to hit a W on Kalista as well since she is always jumping. Kog’maw just had insane damage, so you pick a defensive support against Xayah Rakan. Kog’maw Tahm Kench was a popular lane. Kog Braum was also a really good lane against the Xayah Rakan combo. This is the main reason why the combo is so good right now.









¤ As you may know, your Thresh, Blitz, and Bard performance has been spectacular for the past week. With the new patch rolling in, do you think we will see these champions from you more often? Or will it lean more towards, as you said, the Xayah Rakan combo?



I think the draft usually pans out where other roles will have priority picks. Support usually gets picked for later. Based on the team draft, you could play different types of support picks. Last patch, people would go Alistar, Braum, Taric, and Shen. It was super melee focused. However, those supports all have counters if your team allows you to play it. Thankfully on 100 Thieves, I am allowed to play the wild card picks essentially. I think a majority of teams do not allow their supports to counter pick the entire enemy team. With the new patch, I think teams will now go more into the counter picking direction.





¤ Is there a huge difference in how you play these wild card picks in soloq compared to that of competitive play? May it be how you make picks or landing skillshots.



In soloq, you can just play as aggressive as you want. Once you get to competitive play, you essentially know what can f*** you. You can’t really play that hard. You know where your limit is. You just can’t play as aggressively as you did in soloq in live games. In terms of skillshots, the ping in soloq is 60 but tournament ping is 8. Landing skillshots on 60 ping is pretty hard but once you get to the LCS, it becomes a lot easier. Most of the people who play those kinds of champions usually always land the skillshots on champions anyways.





¤ Can you really feel the difference between 60 or 80 ping?



I play up to 100 ping for soloq, and there is a huge difference. From a 100 ping to 80 ping, I can definitely feel it. Since I have played so many games in my career, I can play well on any ping. For example in the off season, I was playing on the EU server with 120 ping. I was still smashing it over there so.









¤ How has the team dynamic been from the past few weeks? Since 100 Thieves has had such a rollercoaster of results, has this changed the team atmosphere in anyway? Or is it always consistent?



I think it has been fairly consistent. I think the best of 1 system will have teams result in some off games. We had an off game against TL where we died really early in the game. For us coming into these couple of matches, our team vibe has been the same. In terms of discipline, practice, and macro, I think we are doing really well. We are going to keep it up and amp it up for playoffs.





¤ Lastly, there is this trend going on with teams rewarding their players with huge gifts. Echo Fox said they will give the players Rolex watches if they win Miami. I believe this all start with TL Mickey? Has 100 Thieves offered you guys a deal if 100 Thieves makes it to playoffs and win?



I think we started that actually. It was the CLG and OpTic weekend. If we won the game against OpTic, they promised us that we would all get Yeezys. Nothing yet for Miami from us. Oh, we do have a deal right now. If we win Worlds, 100 Thieves said they would give us all Teslas.