A talk with Resultuh of Aim Assist, and what pros think of Season 7 so far
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Aim Assist is one of the most consistently competitive Apex teams in North America. The roster of Gentrifyinq, Dezignful, and Resultuh is the 4th place NA team by ALGS points, trailing only NRG, Complexity, and TSM. A threat in major tournaments and a fixture in the weekly smaller tournaments as well, they won the ALGS Super Regional #2 back in July and took home a $9,000 check for 5th place at the Playoffs in September. More recently, they placed 3rd in the Autumn Circuit #1, and finished with almost the same prize money in 6th place at the big PGL showdown.
I spoke to Resultuh about how Aim Assist became one of the most prominent teams in Apex, the importance of developing a consistent brand, and how the roster has navigated a scene where financial support from big orgs is difficult to find, even for good teams. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
The Final Circle: Aim Assist made their pro debut back in January. What were your goals then? Were you all trying to get signed as a full squad to a big tier-1 org when the ALGS started? How have those goals evolved as the Apex ecosystem developed?
Resultuh: Last fall we were all on PS4 playing in their "pro league". We were no doubt the best team at the time on console. When ALGS was announced in December, we all bought PC's and made the switch and starting scrimming as soon as we could. I guess the goal was the just do our best and be the best. Any org offers or money from earnings would just be a byproduct.
I don't think the goal has changed at all. I would say our standards for ourselves and our team is much higher. We expect to win every fight, every game, every tournament. Over the past few months I've kind of realized that the people that watch us play don't understand when we get upset when we don't do that. We're not okay with x place trophies or not dominating.
With upcoming and ongoing tourney or league offerings from ESA, Nerd Street, GLL, The Realm and others, have you been feeling more optimistic with the development of non-ALGS Apex recently? Is it worth your time to grind small tourneys, or are you basically killing time until LAN when there will hopefully be more investment?
The small tournaments have replaced our practice. The scrim quality is basically worthless imo. GLL kinda gate-keeps the top tier teams from getting quality practice. So us playing in the small tournaments is what preps us for any of the ALGS finals.
How did the HyperX partnership you just announced come together? Does Aim Assist have a talent agent or are you guys hustling behind the scenes? Do you think that helps legitimize Aim Assist as an org?
We're in the process of legitimizing Aim Assist as its own entity. We were given advice to do this ourselves instead of waiting around for an unlikely opportunity in the Apex scene. Not a lot of money to be made in comp and it's hard for an org to support a three man squad when final lobbies have a total prize pool $10,000. Through our placements, personal, and team branding, I would definitely say we created a fan base for Aim Assist. Securing a collab with HyperX is definitely good for the name.
Did you see the recent comments by The Realm on Twitter after teams turned down the Series E contract about ‘starting your own org’? How does that advice relate to what you’re doing with Aim Assist?
The people at Realm are the ones that gave us advice. For some players the Series E was a good move. For our team it wasn't. $1500 to give up a team name and brand that we've been working on for a year just wasn't worth it for us. I think the decision for teams to make either move really depends on their own goals.
In a few months, or say by the return of LAN, and if you keep up your success, will Aim Assist still be thought of as an ‘orgless’ team, or will you think of yourselves as an independent org? This goes along with the earlier question of how you expect the team will evolve—whether you’re still looking to get signed by a current Tier 1 org or if those goals have changed.
Hard to say when LANs come back. We just got signed to play under sF for their competitive roster and we're still keeping the Aim Assist in our names. Now when we compete, our team name will be announced as SolaFide AimAssist. We're always going to do what is best for the team. So it could really go either way in the future once the coronavirus clears up.
Your team has been around for a while with the same roster. Do you think that’s helped your Apex careers, rather than other players who might bounce from one squad to another? On the same subject, do you think it’s been better for your team to have a logo and a recognizable name?
I’m pretty sure Aim Assist is the only roster that has stayed the same in North America since January. Playing at a pro level is so much more than pulling up and hitting every shot. Every player is going to hit every shot. It gets much deeper at this level. There's a lot of decision making that goes on and I think our team chemistry helps a lot with that. Its hard for teams to play consistently well when you're switching the roster around.
Creating a brand for the team is a big deal. Instead of just three kids playing in tournaments, we're a unity with a fan base. When AimAssist is brought up in Apex comp, you think of us.
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Season 7 by the numbers and what pros think so far
Season 7 launched with a massive boost to Twitch viewership of Apex, as EA shelled out cash for sponsored streams from big names like Shroud and DrLupo, as well as the former Apex pro and current Warzone fragger HusKerrs. That flurry of spending sent the game to the top of the leaderboard, and though the initial buzz has died down, it’s still the #7 game on Twitch this week, much higher than its usual #14 or #15. Apex viewership is up 105% in November so far, more than doubling the size of its audience.
Here are some reactions to the new season from streamers and pros. As the analyst behind Singh Labs has reported, Gibraltar is enjoying a healthy increase of picks on Olympus, whose bubble is vital on the map’s exposed areas.
Lots of players are having thoughts about third parties:
And it seems like the changes to zone damage that now allow extended camping inside the storm have rubbed some players the wrong way:
It’s still too early to draw any major conclusions from these anecdotes, and we’ll be waiting a bit to see how Season 7 changes will shake out in higher-stakes tournaments, given that the ALGS Autumn Circuit will not be using Olympus in their map rotations.
I’ll be back with a preview of the Autumn Circuit #4, which takes place in a couple of weeks—until then, be careful on Olympus—it’s a long way down.
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Yeah, I thought about adding context there. As I understand it, it was a reference to GLL's lax enforcement of their own scrim rules, like allowing teams who leave or never show up to continue scrimming. And on the other side, top-tier teams get understandably upset when they aren't allowed practice, which has happened on a regular basis. So I think the blame game goes both ways for quality of NA scrims, which have had similar issues since at least January of this year. I do find it funny that low-tier tourneys seem to have replaced them as de facto 'practice'.
Love the interview. Learned a lot from those few questions. Really cool to see them figuring out how to make money for themselves and leading the way for others who will follow their template for success. Are you able to elaborate on what he meant by this? "The scrim quality is basically worthless imo. GLL kinda gate-keeps the top tier teams from getting quality practice." EU scrims are much higher quality so to me it just seemed like it was an issue with the amount of NA teams that actually committed to taking scrims seriously. This is the first I've heard some blame put on GLL so I'm wondering what he meant by that.