In the high ranked League ladders, there is a top laner many fear for many different reasons. Be it fear of his strength or fear of his rage inducing plays or even misguided fear of having him on your team, all of these fears converge on the AP top Shaco player known as Hunter “Pink Ward” Trahan. I was fortunate enough to use my red trinket to catch him and ask him a few questions.

What got you started in gaming?

Hunter: When I was younger, my grandfather put a lot of effort getting me into computers in general. Watching my grandfather play Age of Empires made me want to play it even though I knew nothing about it. After my mother and I moved out of my grandparents place she got me a Playstation. Most people played games like Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy but I grew up on Jak and Daxter, Rayman and Spyro. I played mostly Playstation games until I was in highschool and that’s when I started getting into more PC gaming and online gaming. My first online game was Runescape like most people. I got into it mostly because it’s what my friends were talking about. So I started looking up more online games and ended up finding the fps game Combat Arms. I played that for three to four years all the time. A clan I met there started getting into Heroes of Newerth.

HoN was probably the biggest influence on me because it got me into the moba genre but I couldn’t play it because I was fourteen at the time and didn’t have a credit card to buy it and I didn’t want to ask my mom to buy it so I ended up finding League of Legends. I thought it was really easy compared to HoN.

What was the first champion you ended up playing/maining?

Hunter: I started playing back in beta and I think one of the first things I remember playing was Tristana top lane. Another one I remember playing is Alistar on Twisted Treeline. The first main that I remember though was Singed top. A friend of mine said I was really good at him and I should take him into ranked once I got to level twenty but a week before I got to twenty the level cap changed to thirty.

What led you to maining AP Shaco top?

Hunter: Around season one/two I was playing things other than Shaco but then one of the friends I’ve had for a long time suggested we play a “fun” botlane. We ended up playing Lux and Shaco. AP Shaco was very strong at the time because his boxes lasted two minutes and Deathfire Grasp was still around. After that I thought it could work in another lane so I brought it top lane thinking it could be strong, and it can still be at times. At the time there wasn’t a lot of diversity in champions so I decided to play AP Shaco top because it was something not many people did.

What do you play when you don’t get Shaco?

Hunter: Back in season three I mained jungle and played a lot of Elise and Lee Sin. This was around the time that Draven was released and I also had about three hundred games of Draven split over my accounts. I could probably get challenger with other things if I set my mind to it and learned the matchups but I just play Shaco because it’s fun, I’m known for it and I know all the ins and outs of Shaco. AP Shaco is kind of a supporty assassin with a lot of mobility around the map and in teamfights, but that’s just more about Shaco. I can play other stuff well though, in my most recent ranked game I carried on Kalista. I’ve played this game for so long I have mechanics in every lane and can move into another lane if I need to. When Zac came out I mained AP Zac mid and got to diamond with that, it was so troll. I really have fun playing non-meta stuff.

How did you get started in streaming?

Hunter: The biggest influence was absolutely BoxBox. He made a huge impression on me and he even made a video about playing against me top lane. The first time I played against him I wasn’t streaming at all and it was really random. I was really nervous and we ended up losing but he was so hyped about the matchup. The top meta was mostly just Malphite so seeing something so unique was really fun to play against. He asked me if I streamed and I told him no. He told me I should. So a couple weeks later we met up in solo queue again and I had just started streaming. It took me a little bit of time to build up the confidence to stream because I wasn’t used to have people watching you play. It took me a week to build up the confidence to start. He even hosted me for a few viewers and put up that video and it’s been a bit over a year now and it has over two million views. He kind of got a lot out of it too. Some montages about me also gave me a boost in popularity.

What do you enjoy most about streaming?

Hunter: It would be the thing that is both good and bad, the people watching. I have many people messaging me on Facebook, tweeting at me or asking in my Twitch chat for runes. It’s such a small thing, but you know they are going to be playing something that you are known for. I have people in my chat telling me they made it to gold with AP Shaco. It’s not that far, but it’s still such a big step for them. Knowing that you can help someone else have as much fun as you do playing Illuminati Shaco means a lot to me. Also, having chat react to big plays you make is also nice.

What’s the most difficult aspect of streaming for you?

Hunter: Always playing one champion, that’s probably the hardest part. Having die-hard Shaco fans watching you. Having people saying things like “You’re not playing Shaco, I’m out” it’s SO disrespectful. Since I only play one champion I could never do something like Nightblue3 does or some other informative streamer. Trying to be informative on Shaco while all you’re trying to do is bait them into boxes and my entire stream is me trying teach people how to bait other people. Its really hard for me to give constant advice like that on a single champion. Trying to be entertaining while playing one champion is really hard. If I try to move onto another champion, I might play well on them but I can’t be as informative. I don’t want to give out misinformation by accident. Try harding also makes me play a little quieter so I don’t think I’m as entertaining in those situations.

Why do you play Shaco AP over AD?

Hunter: There have been times when I play Shaco AD in the jungle and it’s ok, but it’s a completely different playstyle. AP Shaco is just completely different and I’ve always played him AP since season one and season two and I’ve never really mained AD Shaco. I’ve only played him AD a few times maybe playing on a smurf where in the situation AD Shaco can carry harder than AP Shaco. The outplay potential of AP Shaco is just too fun to not play.

Do you have any tips or tricks for being successful at AP Shaco?

Hunter: I’m positive it’s a bug, but double stacked boxes stop things like Malphite ult. It’s so broken. Dash abilities that normally shouldn’t be cancelable can be canceled with two stacked boxes. Examples would include Malphite, Jarvan and Hecarim ults. Other dashes that can be stopped with double boxes are things like Riven Q and Tryndamere E. Normally those two abilities would instantly destroy the boxes, but stacking two of them makes that not happen. So stacking two boxes to achieve that effect can be very useful in a lot of matchups. I think of Shaco as kind of a Support Assassin, kind of like how Lulu is a Support Mage. Lulu can push waves well but also has her E and R to buff people. Shaco is an Assassin, but his boxes are very good for disengage. It can also be used as a bit of an engage if a box were to fear three people at once. At the same time you can get to the back line with Q to take them out. Getting into the back line like that you can force the enemy team to peel off and focus you which can get your team into a 3v4 scenario because two people had to deal with you.

Are you afraid of Riot at some point removing AP Shaco similar to how they removed AP Master Yi?

Hunter: Probably not. I’ve enjoyed my four or five years of playing AP Shaco. The only downside would be I would probably lose the majority of my fan base, but I could probably still make up for it if I played other champions or found a main. I might quit the game, I might not. It would depend how I would feel at the time because I don’t really know how I would react to AP Shaco being removed. If they made him kind of a mixture building AD and playing like AP I don’t really know if I would still play him. I’m sure if someone asked me “Hey, play Shaco for old times sake” and I would, but it would be that hurt spot where you would be like “Man, I used to be innovative with this champion but Riot completely messed it up”. I would probably move on to some other non-meta pick. Zac mid is still ok. Corki or Akali jungle is pretty ok too. In a normal game recently I played AD LeBlanc mid.

Would you like to make any shout outs to fans or friends reading this?

Hunter: The fans in general. I’m always here and happy to answer questions. I really appreciate everything that’s been done for me between BoxBox and the montages. I really appreciate everything and even if I get mad or rage or something I always have you guys in the back of my mind thinking to myself I shouldn’t be doing this. I love you guys, I’m here because of you guys my fans.