The banana slingers come into LAN3 having found success and deep runs in recent cups, as well as a finals appearance in GOTN Season 2. With a roster built win, will this be their time? I sat down with woody to learn more.

APES

zack, shell, brisk, woody, lex

Apes enter LAN3 playing well and should have a good amount of confidence. How are the guys feeling after a good run of results?

We’re all feeling really good with our individually play and as a team. We’re going in confident and excited. -woody

You’re one of the newcomers to the overall squad, how did it all come about?

We had briefly discussed the possibility of me joining prior to lan 2 when I was keeping the bench warm for polo over on bricked but the timing didn’t quite work out, but the consensus was we’d revisit it after lan 2 which inevitably ended up happening. Shout out to panther for playing his role in bringing me to the team and then replacing himself with Lex, claiming it was because he had no time now that he was working two jobs but we have since seen he still is playing plenty of cod haha. I think the opportunity for him to play with his buddies was ultimately the best decision for him and us. I enjoyed teaming with him and watching him vert nade himself for the brief time we played together so many good laughs! – woody

Apes / w core have always been known as arguably the most talented, but maybe not the most prepared. With you and lex joining has that changed, or would you say you are going to rely on the skill of the individuals?

The individual talent and aim on this team imo is stronger than any team I’ve been on in the past. What +forward lacked in the past from the outside looking in was a bit more mid round direction a few more nades and better comms and overall commitment from all 5 members. Panther brought more of that before I joined and we’ve continued to build on that since his departure.

With me and Lex joining I would say we’re much more a team than previous versions of this roster. All 5 of us love the game and are always trying to improve. It’s been super refreshing how much the guys have trusted and listened to a lot of my ideas since day one. I feel we have a great balance of loose structure, solid teamwork with an abundance of individual skill and talent with any one of the guys having the ability to go and win a round by themselves with a quick 3-4K or carry a map if some of us are struggling. – woody

Is there a team you are personally excited to face in Columbus?

I’d say the team were most forward to facing would be the two time defending champs bricked. They are quite clearly the team to beat. Every time we play against them more often than not the full 24 rounds are required or as we saw in the league finals 3-4 OTS.

Besides bricked for me personally I’m excited to face sedated on lan. They’ve matched up vs us well now for months. I respect the drive and structure sedated has and they always keeps me questioning what I can call to counter their many set plays that work vs us. – woody

You’ve had stints on many of the top groups now over the past few years. What have you learned, and what makes this group different?

I think the biggest take away from having played with Janitorz and then bricked would be keeping a positive attitude, try and keep the mood and vibes high and light during difficult moments and carrying that confidence throughout a full bo3 or bo5.

What I’ve noticed in gaming even more so than growing up playing competitive sports is you can’t allow yourself to tilt. The moment you do you’re beating yourself and brining your teammates down even before the opponent has done anything the next round. There’s no worse way to lose than to go EMO and beat yourself imo… – woody

Two things that make this group different than teams I’ve been on in the past would be;

We do a great job of staying calm and relaxed. Keeping our emotions in check and finding solutions in real time rather than bitching between us. We’re never shouting or having a go at each other no one is calling each other passive aggressive or hating on someone for trying to make a call or a play that might change the momentum of the game. If someone starts to loose their composure a certain individual will call someone a fag*** and we’ll all burst out laughing or Lex with all his experience will chime in with a good joke and bring us all right back together again.

The second thing would be just how much all 5 of us love the game and enjoy playing with each other. We’re all committed to each other and respect one another’s time. We all always show up to practice and get on early to get loose with some fun lols while death matching before a scrim. Everyone wants to be here and we all share the common goal to most importantly have fun but push each other to get better so we have the best possible chance to win.

For months we just pugged it out in scrims and matches while we got to know each others play styles and tendencies. It wasn’t until some what recently we’ve ramped it up more and added in more structure and teamwork for something to fall back on if the guys aim isn’t on point and they are not able to just flying around the map fragging out in a flow state. – woody

I think it goes without saying that there’s a group of teams that would be disappointed to not win. What have you guys done to make sure that it will not be Apes going home disappointed?

I’m sure if you asked any of the guys if they will be disappointed not to come away with the win they’d say absolutely but there really isn’t any pressure on us. We’re all excited and can’t wait to play the game we love on lan. Especially us west coast players who get fucked by ping on a nightly basis haha. Can’t wait to see everyone again soon! – woody