The Rift Herald caught up with Aphromoo after Sunday’s series against TSM.
The Rift Herald: How was that best-of-five compared to other best-of-fives you’ve played in the past?
Aphromoo: Holy moly. Alright, so, playing in a best-of-five against TSM, I would say playing against TSM I’m always pissed off going into the series, 100 percent. And I don’t know if it’s the rivalry thing, there was a little extra added on because Doublelift was over there this time, so there’s no way I wanted to f***ing lose this match, whatsoever. I let my guys know that pregame, you know, ‘We’re not losing boys, okay?’
So that’s what we went for. This series went to five games and all it was was bloodbaths and team fights, nobody could get an objective because our team comps were so ... annoying, I would say. All it was was who played better pound-for-pound, and coming into this series everyone said that TSM is just the best team fighting team in NA, pound-for-pound they’re going to outclass CLG, stuff like that, and we just wanted to take it to them and prove that we were better.
TRH: Did that give some extra motivation for you guys, hearing all that?
Aphromoo: I would say so. CLG usually gets their motivation from being the underdogs. Every single season we come into it’s like ‘CLG beats Immortals -- oh! That doesn’t mean anything, they’re still garbage’ and that’s just a recurring theme for us as a team. Hearing that over and over and over, it’s very important for us to take that with a grain of salt and just go out there and play together as a team and that’s the most important thing for us.
TRH: How was the environment?
Aphromoo: Oh, baby. Coming to the Mandalay Bay Events Center, I think this was the loudest the crowd has ever been where I played at. I think it’s because we sat in the middle, but when the team fights would break out, I couldn’t hear anything. It was just all mumbo jumbo, we were screaming and stuff, and the crowd noise was just penetrating my headset. They were just so damn loud we had to play everything off of instincts, feeling, and then like visual cues and stuff in team fights. Really, communication was like 20 percent of that series, I would say, when the crowd started getting amped up.
TRH: Do you think soundproof booths would have helped?
Aphromoo: Soundproof booths would definitely help for these type of events. I don’t know if Riot is going to do that or whatever, but it would be preferred player-wise, because two or three games in I felt like I was going deaf because it was so damn loud.
TRH: Across the world we’ve seen supports play mostly tanks, but you played 4 AP Bullies today. Why are those champions a higher priority for you?
Aphromoo: Usually for us, since it’s a tank meta top right now, it’s easy for me to play these sort of control mages in the bottom lane, to be able to pressure out the tanks since that’s what they’re weak to. Really it’s just what I feel would be best for the situation to win us the game.
So Game 1, Morgana was just broken against their team comp with Black Shield and stuff like that. And then Game 3, I ran the Bard versus their team comp, easy to catch them out, and if we already have tanks it opens up other pathways for our team I would say, so it’s not like we have to go a certain direction like TSM did, where they played just tank support, tank top and just played to 5 v. 5 death ball every game.
So a couple of the games we got out from us being able to 1-3-1, roam around the map and get stuff, and ranged supports definitely enable that. Tank supports really have a hard time catching up to these mobile ranged supports.
TRH: While you were playing in Game 3, Matt tweeted that you’re the best Bard in NA. Do you agree?
Aphromoo: [jokingly] Well, yeah definitely. I am definitely the best Bard in NA. Definitely had an unsatisfying Game 4 on Bard, we couldn’t pull through, but that happens, you have bad games on your favorite champions to play. But Bard, hopefully I can get a skin for him at Worlds.
TRH: What would you want it to look like?
Aphromoo: Well, I think Bard would definitely look good with an afro. You know the Elderwood Bard skin with the leaf beard and stuff? If that was just an afro, up here [gestures up to his head]? That would be better.
TRH: Just call it AphroBard, right?
Aphromoo: AphroBard, there you go baby.
TRH: What went into the decision-making process to throw the Tristana out there in Game 5, with everything on the line?
Aphromoo: Definitely a pocket pick that we’ve had lined up for Stixxay the whole playoff series. It didn’t work out in the Team Liquid game but coming into this series, long-range AD carries in a team fight meta with tanks is very important, so you need long range from mid or long range from AD Carry.
Caitlyn was a highly contested pick that series, and TSM realized that like Game 3, so Trevor just needed the proper situation to pick Tristana, and Game 5, that was it, where he could just outrange the Caitlyn and they had like three AD Carries on their team, but Tristana wins that 1 v. 3 duel every single time.
TRH: We now know three of the six teams at MSI: CLG, G2 and Flash Wolves. How do you think you compare to those teams and what are your goals at MSI?
Aphromoo: For the two teams that are going, I think G2 is definitely pretty good from watching their games, they definitely play off Perkz a lot. I think they also do the 1-3-1 style that we do, where they play assassins and ranged supports that roam around the map a lot, so it’ll be a hard fought series against them if we do have to play them.
And then Flash Wolves, I haven’t seen much of them, but going into MSI, it’s just important that we bring the NA meta that we know how to play well with there. It’s not really important to try and pick up stuff from other regions going into MSI, unless you want to do that, but it’ll probably be a little like last year, since I don’t think that the other teams will change their play style that much besides what weaknesses they’re going to go up against on a certain team.
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