TL APA on champion pool criticism: "I wasn’t really willing to play Azir or Akali [last year], but I feel like I am a lot more willing now, including the other meta champions."

TL APA on champion pool criticism: “I wasn’t really willing to play Azir or Akali [last year], but I feel like I am a lot more willing now, including the other meta champions.”

Time Stamp: January 27, 2024 11:57 AM
Source Node: 3087177

Team Liquid Honda mid laner Eian “APA” Stearns ended last year being publicly referred to by many as a Ziggs one-trick – including a former teammate. The Ohio-born mid laner stepped into a Korean-speaking roster during the 2023 Summer Split and performed admirably given the circumstances of his debut, but his champion pool was a constant point of criticism.

[Related: FLY Jensen: “I feel like if I don’t make Worlds this year, my career is just kind of over.”]

TL APA

Originally an Aurelion Sol one-trick, APA’s strongest performances last summer were on picks with definitive engage options like Neeko – a decisive Pop Blossom is easy to coordinate, even through a partial language barrier – as well as his signature pocket picks like Cassiopeia and the aforementioned Ziggs. However, his performances on more standard mid laners, while often acceptable, were rarely of the caliber of his games on comfort champions.

Through two games of the 2024 LCS Spring Split, however, it has been the exact opposite for APA. In TLH’s first game of the year, APA was focused heavily on his signature Ziggs and was killed six times in a surprise comeback victory for 100 Thieves. Against Shopify Rebellion, however, APA gave a masterclass on Azir – a champion notoriously absent from his pool in 2023. 

APA attributed the performance to how he spent his free time following Team Liquid Honda’s disappointing last-place finish at the 2023 World Championship. “I streamed during the offseason and I was just in Korea for like 25 or so days,” APA told The Game Haus after TLH’s win over SR last weekend. “I just played like 20 games a day and just grinded out new champions.”

Two games is a small sample size, but going from no Azir games to a strong Azir performance in week 1 of your sophomore season is a good way to prove doubters wrong. “The meta is kind of similar to what it was at Worlds,” APA explained. “I wasn’t really willing to play Azir or Akali, but I feel like I am a lot more willing now, including the other meta champions.” 

“If you’ve ever been in a draft conversation with me…normally I have a lot of picks but I wasn’t as willing to play the meta characters.” 

APA’s agreement with the criticism of his performance last year, especially at Worlds 2023, ends there. “To say I had a small champion pool wasn’t the most valid critique because I do bring a lot of picks in draft,” said APA. “If you’ve ever been in a draft conversation with me…normally I have a lot of picks but I wasn’t as willing to play the meta characters.” 

APA is certainly set up for success in a better way this year than he was in 2023. APA was promoted from TLH Challenger to start in favor of Harry “Haeri” Kang after the organization’s LCS roster started the Summer Split 5-5. This year, APA had a whole off-season to prepare and acclimate to his teammates and their shared environment, and while he’s not exactly thrilled about his performance at Worlds 2023, the experience was far from worthless.  

“Well, it definitely ended with like, a sour taste in my mouth. You know? Going out in 16th place does suck,” the TLH mid laner said with a rye chuckle.  “But it was definitely still super beneficial. I learned so much from just playing against the best mid laners in the world. Obviously, it sucks. But at the end of the day, I still took things from it.”

Courtesy of Robert PaulCourtesy of Robert Paul
Courtesy of Robert Paul

Team Liquid Honda’s 2024 roster looks similar to the 2023 version. APA, AD carry Sean “Yeon” Sung and support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-In have been joined by a jungler with experience in League of Legends Champions Korea and a top laner with experience in both LCK and LCS. This time around, however, Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and Eom “UmTi” Seong-hyeon are able to communicate in English with the rest of the team at a more cohesive level than Park “Summit” Woo-tae and Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon.

“It’s…no, it’s a lot easier, I’m not gonna cope,” APA said of the in-game English comms. “If you watch this game I missed a shuffle on Trundle, when he’s checking into like, the banana bush on the river. That play probably wouldn’t have happened last year. I saw that Trundle was coming in, and I said ‘UmTi, look here real quick.’  And I went for the shuffle; missed it, whatever – but like, plays like that probably wouldn’t happen last year because if I were to tell Pyosik like that, he just wouldn’t understand.”

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2041499557?t=1h8m32s

APA said more than just communications have changed when comparing this TLH roster to last year’s roster.  “Last year, it was Summit and Pyosik who were given most of the resources within the game. And they’re two really good players. So we’d give them most of the resources, play for them, and most of the time, they would carry,” said APA. “This year, now that we have Impact and UmTi, while they still can carry, they’re more willing to also be roleplayers…I think this roster has more like four threats, whereas last year’s roster was more of a binary.”

While it’s still early in the season, it’s already clear that APA has put in the work to improve his play on meta champions and that this year’s Team Liquid Honda roster gives him ample opportunity to take his play to the next level.

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