After finishing strong in the last couple weeks of the Summer Split NALCS Regular Season, Xpecial and Apex now look to the future as they join Team Dignitas and the Philadelphia 76ers. Although Apex were just barely kept from competing in the NALCS Playoffs with a 7th place Regular Season finish behind Team EnvyUs, the team is preparing for their debut with their new brand and hope to achieve their goals this upcoming split. We spoke to Xpecial about his thoughts on joining Team Dignitas and the 76ers as well as his opinions on traditional sports investments into esports and his plans for the upcoming split.

What is your opinion on being affiliated with the Philadelphia 76ers?

Xpecial: I’m excited for this! This is probably one of the biggest deals in esports ever and to be a part of it is amazing. I just can’t wait to have more impact and just do more, and, you know, I love doing things! There’s been a lot of money coming into League of Legends, and the big thing I think is where the money goes to and how it grows the [League of Legends] scene, and I’m excited to see what the 76ers help us do and accomplish and what we can help them do (I love helping people, I’d be down to help, just saying!).

Was basketball ever an interest of yours growing up?

Xpecial: So I actually played a lot of basketball growing up. I joined some basketball clubs when I was in middle school and what not, and I watched the Lakers a lot growing up. I remember just being like, “Hey, hey uh, Shaq, you gotta stop missing those free throws, you know?” and I watched their runs through the NBA finals, and it was really, really exciting when I was younger.

Who is your favorite NBA team?

Xpecial: So my favorite NBA team, I would have to say, is the Lakers (please don’t kill me.) because I just grew up watching them. I was a fan of them, I was from L.A. (still from L.A.) and I always watched the Lakers growing up (Clippers kind of sucked so I never watched those guys) so the Lakers.

Which 76ers player would you most like to play basketball or League of Legends with?

Xpecial: Honestly I would probably get crapped on really, really hard in a game of basketball against any of the 76ers, but in a game of League of Legends, I think I would like to play against Ben Simmons; he seems like a pretty cool guy. I can’t beat him in basketball, but I can probably (hopefully) beat him in League of Legends. I wouldn’t call Ben Simmons out, that wouldn’t be cool, just invite him out for a drink and then a casual game of getting sh*t on 1v1.

Image Courtesy of Lolesports

How are you looking to improve going into season 7?

Xpecial: So without knowing what the patch is going to be like, it’s hard where I need to improve on the most, but as always I want to improve individually in terms of mechanical skill, laning prowess, but then also work a lot on team play, figuring out the map, and just communicating across the team. Just things you always work on throughout the season.

How has it been for you to be coached by an old competitor?

Xpecial: Well Saint has been my coach for about a year now and I never really saw him as a former player, I mean I do, but I much more see him as a coach at this point and count him as a friend in a way. I don’t really care about what people have done in the past but more about how they bring that to the future and how they do right now.

What makes Saint stand out as a coach?

Xpecial: So, Saint stands out in a lot of ways: he doesn’t have much hair, he’s really old, but he has a lot of game knowledge and I think that is where he stands out.

Do you two ever reminisce about the “old days”?

Xpecial: Yeah occasionally Saint and I will just grab a drink, sit on our rocking chairs on the lawn and talk about how, “Man back in the old days, we all just sat in sh*tty chairs and just played some video games.” Now you’ve got team houses and all this cool stuff and interviews. Back then it was like, you kinda just played the game and you had people standing behind you, touching you, and it’s like, “stop”.

Image Courtesy of Lolesports

How are you dealing with your team’s language barrier?

Xpecial: The language barrier that we had on the team was actually really tough. We had a lot of issues in game we weren’t able to fix and it just sucks not being able to communicate face to face a lot of times, but we did work through it a lot of times and hopefully it gets even better this split.

In what way do you feel you’ve grown the most?

Xpecial: So I’ve been playing League of Legends for about six years now and playing pro for about five years, so I’ve gone through a lot of my college years and what not playing League of Legends and I learned a lot of social skills through both League of Legends and my interactions over the years with many, many people, and I’ve grown so much. All of those experiences are what made me who I am today; someone that is much more confident, someone that, hopefully, can speak to people better, someone that is hopefully a better person and a better teammate, and these are all things that I’ve learned through messing up, through other people, through things that I’ve learned from the past, and...that’s me.

What was the most difficult moment in your career and how did you overcome it?

Xpecial: The most difficult moment in my career is when people tell me that I’m not good or that I’m not good enough or that I should retire, and I just fight through that. I’ve always been down in this scrap and in those situations I believe in what I believe in and you can tell me otherwise, but I’ll do what I wanna do. That’s never stopped me, but for myself mentally that’s probably the hardest to have to fight against what people’s perception of you are and you just gotta keep on going.