It feels like just yesterday that Apollo “Apollo” Price was Coast Gaming’s new AD carry and one of the newest players in the LCS. Today, he stands on Clutch Gaming as a veteran that wants to lead his team. Clutch Gaming had a strong Spring performance, reaching top 4 in playoffs, but fizzled in Summer. After not making the playoffs, Clutch also failed to defeat Echo Fox in the Regional Qualifiers and will thus miss the World Championship. Even then, Apollo is ready to bounce back and still looks forward to Worlds as a spectator.

We caught up with Apollo to chat about Clutch Gaming, the World Championship, and how he wants to improve for next year.

VP Esports: Firstly, it’s the end of your guys’ run. What changed in between Spring and Summer that really hit you guys?

Apollo: Going into Summer Split, a lot of changes happened with the meta, like with a lot of the mages coming through. It felt like we were really lost. We overthought a lot of things and didn’t create a playstyle or identity we wanted to hone. The season started off kind of rough for us and I think we lost a lot of confidence. We didn’t have good plans going into our games and we just didn’t play as a team as much as before, whether it was shotcalling or communication. If you compare playoff CG to gauntlet run CG, we just aren’t playing as much as a team.

You mention the changes, what did you think of it? For a while AD carries weren’t getting played and it was practically a completely different game.

I wish they gave us more time to prepare. That being said, it’s the same for everybody right? Everybody had the same amount of time to prepare and it was the same patch for everybody. It was fair ground, but it felt pretty hard for us. But you know, it happens and I don’t think it was a bad move by riot. I think for the game to be interchangeable and dynamic is a good thing and it’s just up to the teams to figure it out.

Even now, there is still a lot of strategic diversity being unraveled, like Urgot top in Asia and RNG even pulled off a lane-swap yesterday. Do you think that makes Worlds even more exciting?

Yeah, definitely. I’m obviously really excited to watch Worlds. It sucks that we’re not going to be going this year and it sucks that it’s another year for me, but the teams that are going deserve to be there and it’s going to be really fun to watch. China is getting stronger and stronger and Korea has obviously been notoriously strong, but it feels like one of the Worlds where we can see China winning– which hasn’t been done. It’s going to be really exciting and Team Liquid is obviously going to win Worlds (laughs).

What do you actually think of Team Liquid?

Team Liquid is obviously the highest tier for NA and I think all teams should look up to them and try to figure out what they do because they’re just at another level. That being said, I still don’t think they’re at the level of China or Korea. I hope they can get to there because I’m rooting for NA. It should be fun, I hope their bootcamp goes and well and they do well against the international teams.

Now, Team Liquid won NA and Doublelift obviously won his MVP. What do you think — did he deserve the MVP and as a fellow AD carry, how do you compare him to yourself? How much of a difference do you see, if at all?

Firstly, he definitely deserves it. There’s no question about it. I think he’s just different… He’s a veteran right, but I think the way he commands and leads his lane and his team as a whole is just really impressive. I’m envious of that. Being able to do that is a skill in itself and it’s something I really want and need to learn how to do because I’m a veteran. Just being able to do that is really important. I have the experience to do that — it’s just a matter of pushing myself.

You mention experience and learning. How is Apollo today different from Wizfujin all the way back then?

Confidence. Communication is a lot more — well still a work in progress — but a lot more directive. And I just learned how to play with a team more. That’s the main thing. Usually you come into the scene strong mechanically because you climbed solo queue ladder, but if you want to grow as a player, you have to learn to play the team game. That’s what I’ve done and what I’m working to improve on. That’s the main trait that I’ve learned.

You’ve been around a while, but also been with the same support for a while. What kind of relationship do you have with Hakuho and what is it like playing with someone for so long?

There are obviously good and bad things, right. The good thing is that we know what we’re trying to do and we’ve learned things together so it’s a lot easier to click on certain plays. The bad thing is that sometimes it’s kind of hard to fix things because we’ve already gone past that point where it’s easy to fix things. Some things are just in our playstyle and hard to change. But yeah, Hakuho is obviously a good support and it’s good to have a partner that you can trust and work to improve together with.

If language was not an issue, which support would you want to play with?

Obviously, I want to play with one of the top tier supports in Korea or maybe even China if language wasn’t an issue. Mata or even CoreJJ is really good. They’re just really good support players and I’m sure that I can learn a lot from them.

More on foreign players, which AD carries do you think will be the best at Worlds?

Sadly, Viper isn’t making it, but I think Deft will do well, as well as Rekkles. Uzi is gonna be a god and all the top teams have really good AD carries. Jackeylove…Uzi…PraY might be going or even Ruler — it depends on the next game — but all those AD carries are really good.

Who’s the best?

Uzi.

Why?

Because he’s the best. If I just have the answer, there’s no need to have a reason. You can ask anybody. If they say Uzi, it doesn’t matter — they’re correct. He’s clearly the best.

Well, now that it’s all over, what are you going to focus on this offseason? What’s the personal goal?

Just going to take a break, relax. I’ll come into next split with a clear mindset. Toward the end of the split, I didn’t really do very well or prove myself as a veteran — I kind of let my team down a bit. I’m going to make sure that I go into next split with a fresh mindset and just want to lead my team to playoffs and Worlds.

Photo: (Lolesports, Riot Games)