Galaxy Brain Coaching - Welcome Hodsic

We are very pleased to be able to announce that Hodsic will be joining Team Liquid as our new Apex Legends Coach. Many will probably know him as the galaxy brained analyst who was recently on the ALGS Finals broadcast, or you may have caught his terrific Apex Academy series on youtube. After speaking to him we are absolutely certain that he will help our Apex team reach new heights and help them improve their game at a rate that would be unthinkable without him in our corner. We highly recommend you check out his twitch streams as he breaks down how to play Apex Legends in a manner that is both easy to understand and apply to your own game play whether you are new to the game or a seasoned veteran. We are all looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish with us here at Team Liquid!

check out one of Hodsic's Apex Academy videos here

You’ve said you’re very excited about this announcement, even more so than the broadcasting announcement, why is that?

When I was younger and just getting into esports, learning what it was, Team Liquid was basically the first team I ever watched of any team that I became a fan of I guess you could say. My brother and I back when SC2 was the big thing, I don’t really remember the players that were on Team Liquid back then that I was watching but I remember watching StarCraft. I always loved the logo and — you know when you’re younger, you attach yourself to these small things that you’re a fan of? I loved the TL logo, the colors and everything, and they were the first team I saw and really knew of and I thought it was a cool name too. So I’ve always followed them since then, I’ve been a big fan of them since Dota 2. It’s really the first org I’ve ever followed for the most part. I’ve always respected them and it is also my first entry into a big org. I was on the Knights and while I appreciated my time on the Pittsburgh knights you know, Team Liquid is a couple of steps above that so I’m really excited. It just feels like the amount I’ve been busting my butt the past year or so is finally paying off.

What made you interested in taking on a coaching role in Apex?

Well, plain and simple I was looking for a long time after Poland for teammates because our 3rd at the time who was with me and my friend didn’t want to play anymore, at least not with us. So after 4 or 5 months of trying to find a 3rd and then trying to find a team in general it just got super stressful. I still love the competitive side of everything but to me personally I’m kind of burnt out on constantly having to scrim and that stuff.

I started coaching Golden Guardians first when they asked for help and I was going down that route and that’s kind of when I started to enjoy the drive to see if I, with what I know and my experiences, can make other players better. It’s a competitive drive inside myself to see if that was possible if that makes sense. It’s definitely something to me that was interesting to explore. As much as I love competitive Apex and competing in general I did get a little burnt out on doing it myself. But I still want to be involved because I love the Apex community, I love the pro scene, I feel like I have a lot to offer a team even if I’m not playing for it so it was really a culmination of all of those factors.

Which has been more stressful for you — playing in the match or watching your team compete without being able to have any direct influence over the game?

*laughs* Yeah that’s definitely stressful. I think honestly yeah, coaching is probably a little more stressful. Playing obviously is very stressful and it gets the heart rate going and all that but that’s why it’s fun. And if you lose or if you die, you had direct control over that and at least you can kind of learn off of that. There’s a big challenge for example when I give a team a strategy to do or maybe when I try to help them with stuff. Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck if I don’t see any improvement or I see them relapse into a bad habit that I was trying to break from them. That’s certainly very frustrating, it’s frustrating but it’s another challenge where I think to myself maybe that way that we went about it didn’t work but we have to find a new way to do it and that alone can be really really fun. I definitely think it’s more stressful though from the coaching side because there is that lack of control.

You were recently doing some analytical work for ALGS Finals, what was that experience like for you?

It was a bit of a dream come true in the sense that competing is still first and foremost my desire more than anything but I’ve always thought casting would be really cool but I never thought I’d be in the shoes to do it. I know how hard casters work to get into their scenes and to get noticed so it felt very surreal to be there and while I’m talking to see myself on the Apex cast out of the corner of my eye. It was something I never imagined that I’d actually be able to do and now I’ll be doing it fairly regularly so it’s pretty crazy.

I feel very blessed because like I said I do have some caster friends who have been working their butts off to get into casting and I know how hard it is so I feel I’m very lucky to be able to do it. It was awesome, it was such a cool experience.

What do you hope to bring to the Apex team with your insight?

I’m very excited to work with a team that I know puts in the time and effort as well. I know they are passionate about the game, even when there is Valorant and other competitive ventures I know people want to pursue. It seems like the Team Liquid Blue squad is still very passionate about Apex and moving forward and continuing to grind Apex and I like that because I like to play other games like Valorant, it can be really fun, but my heart is still with Apex. I love the community side of it.

I’ve been friends with the Liquid players for a while and I don’t know, I really think I can tighten their play a little bit. They do play very well together but I think I can really air out those small things, those recurring problems that you sometimes see. I feel like I’ve already identified what I want to work on to be honest so I’m excited to start.

I’ve seen you mention in some of your videos that the early game loot patterns and making sure you have quick rotations can really decide a game from the get go.

Oh absolutely. I hate that the early game is so boring for spectators because there is actually so much that happens that is important. It literally dictates the rest of your game and I think a lot of people sleep on that in BR’s.

What has been one of your most memorable moments in Apex so far?

Poland definitely. I don’t think we were ever seen as a top team by any means and we didn’t have the best finishing, I think we were 29th but there were just some crazy moments. It was double elimination and the first day we showed up and the very first match we played, we got knocked down to the lower bracket and we put up 4 points total. It was embarrassing. I felt bad for my org who had paid us to go out there, we all felt bad. The next day as we were driving to the venue it was just a super quiet ride. No one was saying anything, we were all just like, “let’s get it over with” y’know? Let’s show up and do what we gotta do but the whole time I was wondering if I was really cut out for this or had I messed up by trying to pursue this.

Then we showed up and immediately won the first game and we destroyed the rest of the losers bracket up until the finals where we fell just a bit short unfortunately. But there was one moment where we were engaged in a 4-way tie to move on and after we finished the last game, we had no idea if we had enough points. I thought it was over, I didn’t think there was any way we had enough points but then somebody told me we were in a tiebreaker and then it really felt like eternity standing outside, standing on the stage looking up at the scoreboard waiting to see the scores. When we saw that we were 9th place… my heart had sank before that because I thought we didn’t make it but as soon as I saw us in 9th place it was the biggest reverse of emotions I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve never felt something like that before, it was the coolest thing. I had always wanted to play at a Major lan like that, it’s been my dream and we didn’t win it or anything but I think aside from winning it, it couldn’t have been any cooler than that.

Were analytics something you were interested in outside of Apex Legends as well?

So before I got into Apex I was between jobs but I was a financial advisor and I was learning coding, SQL, to be a business analyst. So it’s analysis but in a different way. It’s more numbers. I did genuinely like being presented with a problem, being presented with Data or some forms or factors around that problem and then figuring out how to fix that problem. That kind of loop is just very fun for me to figure out. So yeah I was studying to be a business analyst because it was something I thought I wouldn’t mind doing vs financial advising. And then while I was studying, Apex came out and took my life away basically in a very good way *laughs*.

What would you like to say to your fans or fans of Team Liquid who will get to know you?

As cliche as it might be, genuine heartfelt thank you to everyone who has enjoyed my vod review content in general because without that, if people didn’t enjoy it, it wouldn’t have fueled the fire in me to keep making it and I probably wouldn’t be in this position or the caster position at all. If it wasn’t for the people who enjoy it I wouldn’t be in this position at all so just a big thank you to anyone who enjoys that because it keeps me going.