With a rather unstable start, Echo Fox defeated Golden Guardians and secured their 3-1 score for Week 2.

Unlike most Echo Fox games, Echo Fox drafted a ‘normal’ team composition without any role swaps with one exception. Altec had picked Vladimir again. Following the performance of yesterday’s game (Saturday), most people were not convinced of Altec’s Vlad pick. Altec could not have proven his mastery on the champion more.

Throughout the early to mid to late game, Altec consistently performed well on Vlad to the point you could validly question if he was an ADC player. Altec presented one of, if not the most, carry convincing games on Vlad this split.

After the game, we got to talk with Altec and ask him about this Vladimir performance. Let’s see what he has to say about Vladimir, GGS, and Huni’s Heimerdinger.

¤ Walk us through what happened during the early game today?

Honestly, I don’t really know. Huni, Dardoch, and Fenix all died, and they all said: “Oh s***, this game might be hard.”. Since I couldn’t really help on the top side, I was just playing for the laning phase at that point. We managed to kill them 2v2 bottom which gave me a lot of confidence that I was going to carry the game.


¤ It seems like Echo Fox is never afraid to fight. When Xin and Swain gained the early lead, was there ever a moment when you guys decided to play it safe? Or was it always go go go?

For other teams when behind, they might choose to play it safe. But for us, we knew that if we played safe we would slowly lose. We also felt that our champion picks had no real way of coming back. We didn’t have that much playmaking on Yasuo and Graves. We were at one point saying “Let’s just try to fight and trade kills.”. It is going to benefit us because they have shut down gold. We ended up doing just that and caused us to win the game.


¤ Comparing your Vladimir from today’s game to yesterday’s game, it is two different pictures. What really changed from yesterday’s performance to today’s?

I think my practice on Vladimir this week has been really good, even in scrims and solo q. I have never messed up the Flash combo on Vlad. When I Flashed and Hourglassed right away, I was really mad at myself. That was my first time misplaying on Vlad, and it also happened on stage. Even though I f***** up yesterday, I still had a lot of confidence on Vlad. Coming into today’s game, I just said: “Just give me Vladimir, I can carry this game.”.

¤ What were you thinking while there was a whole clown fiesta going on on the top side of the map?

I trust my teammates. If they are looking to trade kills, they are going to trade one for one at least. This is because… you know… they are really good players. At one point, I was pretty scared and thought “Holy s***, I might lose on Vlad again. It is going to look so embarrassing.” (laughs).

GGS messed up their snowball too, which gave us the opportunity to come back into the game. In the fight top lane, I should have died to Camille. If I died there, I think the game would have been completely different.


¤ Why do you prioritize heavily on Vladimir right now? Is it because of Huni and Dardoch’s AD picks or your personal preference?

Vladimir as a champion is quite strong right now. He is good in general. Vlad does well vs ADCs and can kill them at lv 6. He is tanky and has pool as well. Comparing other players who play Vlad in NA, they only give 2-3 days of scrim practice. While on the other hand, I spend a lot of my time learning Vlad in solo q. I am really confident in my Vlad compared to other players. My Vlad is definitely a lot stronger.


¤ In a hypothetical situation when ADCs don’t come back to the meta anytime soon, where do you rank yourself as a non-marksman player?

I think I will be at least top 3. I do play off-role pretty frequently in solo q, and I used to main top. I am very familiar with other roles. I feel like other ADC players only play their role. If they get something else, they are pretty bad at it. I believe as a professional player, you should attempt to try and learn every lane in the game.


¤ Who would be a top contender if you were top 3?

Hmm… I would have to say Cody Sun. I see him off-role fairly often, and I think he is a good player as well.

¤ Talking a little bit about teams like GGS and OpTic, these teams were on the bottom of the ladder last split. Despite this, these teams are now contesting top tier teams. What are your thoughts on GGS and OpTic stepping up their game?

I believe a lot of it has to do with the meta. Going into a game, you are never sure if the team will pull off the ‘super strategy’. We call gold funneling onto one character as the ‘super strategy’. GGS did the Kai’Sa-Braum yesterday, but they didn’t implement it today. In my opinion, the bottom tier teams from spring developed their own style of play. It is much more significant in this meta to understand how your team plays or what champions are good rather than countering a strategy.


¤ Will we ever see Heimer and Fiddle bot from Echo Fox? If there is any team that can pull off Heimer-Fiddles, it is Echo Fox.

For sure. I’m not sure if you will see Heimer-Fiddles, but you will definitely see some crazy s*** bottom.


¤ If Echo Fox was to play to Heimer-Fiddles, who do you think will play Heimer and Fiddle?

Well, Huni has been telling me that his Heimerdinger is really good (laughs). I don’t mind playing either. I can play Fiddlesticks since all you do is throw E. Pretty basic. For that lane, whoever I lane with will be fun. I will probably be the Fiddle? Maybe I’ll be the Heimer? I don’t really know.


¤ Lastly, is there anything you want to say to your fans, team, or haters? Maybe something to say to the people who are thinking “Why is he picking Vlad again?”?

I want to thank all the fans across the world for supporting us in our crazy strategies and champions. I am really grateful. I hope that when you watch us, it is extremely exciting for you guys. Our goal is to make it to Worlds. Even though my Vlad performance was fairly poor yesterday, I proved them wrong today. I am really happy about that. Thank you!