Low and behold the lion roared into the NALCS; taking out the reigning NALCS champions in Counter Logic Gaming as well as an out of energy team NRG to debut the organization’s “first” venture in the NALCS. Dominating these matches primarily through the top lane, Apex started the split off with a 2-0 and hopes were looking high. Fast forward two weeks and they have yet to look dominant in almost any match, currently holding a 1-3 record in weeks 2 and 3. The future doesn’t look too bright for Apex, and here is why.

The Roster

Top – Ray

Jungle - ShrimP

Mid - Keane

AD Carry - Apollo

Support – Xpecial

Coach – Saintvicious

The majority of these players are well known throughout the NALCS -- some veterans of the stage in Xpecial and Apollo and others who are relatively new to the camera close-ups and high fives that follow in Ray and Shrimp. So, who are these guys and what are they good at?

Top Lane - Jeon "Ray" Ji-won

Jeon has played since 2014 on Edward Gaming’s Challenger team, AD Gaming along with Move, Baeme, Marbee, and Mous. After a 2-3 loss to Energy Pacemaker, he only played one other series with EDG, a 2-0 victory against Snake Esports, opting in for damage-oriented champions in Jarvan IV and Riven with high KDA’s, a 24.0 and 9.0 KDA respectively. After that, he joins the Apex squad and immediately attempts to keep that damage-oriented playstyle going. Sadly, his radical play comes with a big cost. Sporting a 2.5 KDA, he places 6th throughout the league yet holds the second most deaths at 54 behind Huni’s 58. The problem there is you have Huni winning 23% more games than his fellow Korean top laner, so unless Ray is having a more positive impact, he needs to stop the bleeding.

Speaking of bleeding, Ray’s early game is subpar -- a 96 gold deficit at 10 minutes as well as a -2.3 CSD in the same timeframe, placing low in the Top Lane standings. To make up for it, Apex often hands Ray the gold to make a return with a whopping 29.2% CSPM Gold Share post 15 minutes, the most on his team and of any other team’s top laners.

Is it worth it? For Apex, yes it is. Ray has the 3rd highest DPM of any top laner in the league, often a real terror especially for the enemy bot lane with his signature Fizz and Jarvan IV picks. If there is a superstar for Apex, it’s this guy. With his burst-focused playstyle, he often carries his team to victory. Put him on a tank and you’ll only see the victory screen once throughout these past few weeks.

Jungle - Lee "Shrimp" Byeong-hoon

Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp.. Apex’s previous substitute jungler behind Eve possibly lucked out this season. Eve was suspended from the league due to violating Riot rules, offering the starting spot to Shrimp on a silver platter. The question now is, is he any good?

Like the common shrimp, he’s nothing special. He has the lowest KDA of all starting junglers throughout the league at 2.7 whilst holding the second lowest Kill participation at 66.8%, right above Svenskeren at 64.7% (Yet Svenskeren in less games has more total assists and 19 fewer deaths). He has the highest share of team deaths of all junglers at 24%, highest deaths of all junglers at 49, and the lowest FB% of the entire league’s junglers. The only shining lights he has is that he holds the second highest CS differential at 10 minutes (+5.0) and that he dies less than Ray.

Any words of advice? Take the fall for Eve’s ruling or have more of an impact instead of farming so much. Also, ward more (yup, dead last again at 0.56). Apex has a terrible early game rating and Shrimp is part of the problem.

Mid Lane - Jang "Keane" Lae-young

Keane, the player who sparkled in the spotlight through strong counter-picks and innovation on Gravity returned to the NALCS stage with team Apex. He is currently the second strongest player on the squad, boasting a relatively high KDA of 4.9, only second to Team SoloMid’s Bjergsen at 6.8. Holding the lowest team death percentage of all Mid laners, things are looking relatively safe for Keane…until you look at some statistics. Middle of the pack in CS differential, he has a 2.4 CS deficit at 10 minutes as well as the 3rd lowest Gold Differential of all teams at -132.

For most areas, he is an average mid laner, yet he requires a lot from his top laner and AD carry in order to pull out the win. After all, he pulls the 3rd most kills on his team and cannot hard-carry on champions like Viktor or Zilean. If he brings his gameplay up whilst strengthening his early game, he can rise to the top half of the NALCS.

AD Carry - Apollo "Apollo" Price

Apollo, ex-Team Impulse AD Carry, now plays for Apex, often playing Caitlyn, arguably his best champion this split. He stands 4th in KDA at 4.0, 5th in Kills, 7th in Kill Participation, and 8th in CS differential at -3.5@ 10 minutes. He gets the lowest share of his teams CS post 15 minutes out of all AD Carries by a fair margin, and it hurts his DPM. Playing a high resource AD Carry in Caitlyn, he needs the gold to pump out the big numbers, but sadly he sits at 8th in DPM as a result of resource allocation and is dead last in average share of team’s total gold of all NA LCS AD carries.

In previous seasons, Apollo was known for his teamfighting prowess and use of gold, outputting consistently good damage and even being hailed a superstar on Team Impulse. He has the highest Gold Differential at 10 minutes, 2nd highest CS per minute, 2nd highest Damage per minute, and 24% of his team’s total damage. All that while being ignored by his team in gold % and CS% post 15 minutes, give this guy something to work with and maybe Apex will see more wins.

Support - Alex "Xpecial" Chu

One of the veterans in the NA LCS, Alex has worked with TSM, TL and now Team Apex. Playing primarily Braum and Alistar, he is the main initiator for his team. He should also stick to that, being that his winrates on those are far higher than the new Queen of Supports, Karma (a 0-3 record).

Xpecial is a very large component in Apex’s victories, hyperactive throughout every match, sitting at the (almost) top of Kill Participation at 79.6%. Tying for 3rd in assists at 146 with Immortals’ Adrian, Alex is a very solid player. Placing the second most wards at 1.39 wards per minute, he pushes hard to get his team vision. Other than statistics, Xpecial has garnered his team victories in many teamfights due to his strong initiation, and it is up to himself and Ray to lead this squad to victory.

Coach – Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco

A literal veteran, Brandon has both served in the Navy as well as on the stage. There aren’t many statistics that show how great a coach is doing, so one thing an individual can do is look at many team decisions that are made throughout the season. Well, for starters, his team is tied for 5th and will probably end the season in 6th or 7th place.

Whats wrong? Apex under Saintvicious’s reign misallocates resources, ignores their AD carry, has an insult-for-lackluster jungler in Shrimp (with Diamondprox on the bench), and many questionable decisions. They honestly lucked out against CLG making massive mistakes (3 Braum bans???) and will probably have a hard time the next time around. Brandon has to make a choice or his team could hit a new low. He has to change either jungle priority or the jungler, how his team manages waves, or simply change how they play the game. Apex currently is very 1-dimensional, and that can be taken advantage of.

Looking forward, they could be the first team to lose to P1 (once Inori is back) and might pick up a win against Echo Fox, but given EF’s recent performance against Immortals, the early lead might snowball for the Froggen-led squad. The future looks just like their stats, barely mediocre. It’s on Saint to fix it and if not, Crumbzz should take a larger role in the team. I’m not saying Saint should step down, but at least give Apex a reason to let you stand up. If Apex wants to even make playoffs, they have to do something to shift their path, otherwise that is enough roaring for this team.

Images courtesy of Lolesports Flickr, Esportspedia