With the new 8.4 patch coming in, Echo Fox have struggled but are now bouncing back.

Echo Fox has secured 1st place in the NA LCS for 2 weeks now. However ever since the new patch, we saw little cracks that started to emerge within Echo Fox. Losing to Golden Guardians, a last placed team, many fans were troubled by Echo Fox’s transition into the patch. With the team seemingly in peril, what better player is there to lead the team than Huni.

Huni has always been in the spotlight and a dependable carry for Echo Fox. After the game against OpTic Gaming, Inven Global interviewed Huni to gain a better understanding of the in and outs of Echo Fox.

Let’s see what Huni has to say about the state of Echo Fox, KZ Peanut, and a Rose Gold Rolex.

¤ Ever since patch 8.4 rolled in, the games for Echo Fox has not been that easy.

Since the patch made the game more focused on the bot lane, there was almost little to nothing I could really do to impact the game. Before the patch, top lane had little impact to begin with. But now after the patch, it is even worse. Due to the fewer wards now present in the early game, carry junglers are now starting to emerge. Because of lack of vision in the early game, there is now low risk of picking a carry jungler. The teams are now looking to balance this carry style jungle pick with a more tankier pick in the top lane. Overall, I think top lane lost influence power, mid lane was always influential, and the amount of influence top has lost bot lane has gained. I believe the direction of the patch was not that good for me personally.


¤ The adjustment of a patch is not on one player but on the entire team. How has your team adjusted to the new patch?

We are trying to adapt. However, It has only been a week since we were able to practice with the new patch as a team. Due to the sheer amount that was in this patch, Echo Fox is a lot slower at adjusting to the meta compared to other teams in my opinion. Because we are even struggling against the bottom tier teams, it has been a bit unfortunate. We are all trying to give each other information on which champion is best right now. For example, I talked a lot with people I know in the LCK to ask what champion is good. I believe that after a patch, it is really helpful to ask around. I talked with Peanut and learned a lot from him.

¤ Did Peanut suggest any good picks for you?

Uh, it felt like I was the one suggesting him good picks (laughs). But, Peanut did tell me that Varus Leona and Xayah Rakan are broken. He told me a lot about the bot lane, and I told him a lot about the jungle. I told Peanut, Skarner was good in the jungle because no one played Skarner in Korea. Skarner had only just surfaced in NA. It felt good to see him do well.

¤ Since the patch also changed the top lane meta, which champions do you think are good to pick right now?

I’m honestly not sure (laughs). But, I do know that the champions picked right now will be continued to picked in the future. I think Sion just needs a hotfix. It feels like an unskilled player can still bully you out of lane with Sion. You just press E and you win most trades. Because Sion is an easy champion to play, it is hard to really get the snowball on him. It is just a bit unfortunate. There is even a bug on Sion’s E right now. The E hits bigger than the actual animation indicator.

The reason why Echo Fox bans Sion is to make sure I can lane and snowball better. Since Sion and Banner of Command came into meta, there are some people who rush Banner of Command mid Sion. It is so cheesy… Regardless, I think it is really strong. I heard if you go Banner of Command Sion mid, you automatically get 2 mid towers early on. But yeah, this patch is not easy for our team.

Before, I would work with Dardoch to gain early leads in the top lane with 2v1 or 2v2s. After the patch, it is more beneficial to get the bot lane ahead compared to top. We could force jungle to only help top, but this patch benefits teams to get their bot lane fed. This is also the reason why I am having such a hard time.


¤ Are you guys working on to resolve this issue?

We are looking to solve this issue, but there is almost nothing we could do about it. We can’t control the patch. We can only solve this issue if I find a champion I could stomp people with. Since tank counters like Gangplank were nerfed, it is inevitable for tanks to rise up the tier. It is just so unfortunate that the rate of snowball for top lane is now incredibly slow because of all these tanks.

¤ When we interviewed Adrian, he talked about the Tesla you guys got. Was this Tesla something that Echo Fox gave you or?

Oh no, we borrowed it (laughs). Adrian and I are interested in Teslas, so we went to the car store. The worker at the store recognized who we were can lended the car to us for free. He knew we were really interested in the car, so he asked us to test drive it. Normally, they won’t let you borrow the car. However, the worker asked his boss and let us drive it for a bit.


¤ Do you still have the car?

No (laughs), we already returned it.


¤ How was driving the Tesla?

It was amazing (laughs). The car is so powerful. I could feel Tesla’s urge to go to outer space because the car would just go off. The engine is just incredible.


¤ Can you tell me more about where this whole Rolex watch deal came from?

Oh (laughs), I believe it came from Mickey in Team Liquid? Steve is the co-owner of TL, so him and Mickey made a bet. The bet was to split half-half for a Rolex if Mickey hit rank 1 in soloq. I think the watch was $12,000, and they split it $6000 dollars each. I heard this and told my boss about it. He told me that if we win Miami, we could go straight to the watch store and buy anything we want. After he told me, I got straight into the 1st place mentality (laughs). I told myself “Damn, I need to win so bad”.

¤ Have you picked yourself a watch you want yet?

I went to several watch stores to go look around and see. Everything looks so nice (laughs). But if I had to choose, I think Rose Gold is my type of watch.


¤ Because of the new patch, which teams are you now most wary of?

I’m not sure how everything is going to go, so I can’t really say. What I can say is that I really want to win against CLG. Since I think mid and bottom are really important right now, teams with good mid and bot lanes are going to be a bit scary.


¤ Lastly, anything you want to say to your fans?

I want to apologize to my fans that Echo Fox has had such a tough week. Even though we have had trouble against easier teams, it just shows how much we still need to improve and move forward. Since it is more important to well in playoffs, it is better to do worse now then in playoffs. I will try my best to show my best performance in the upcoming games.