Dooplex Joins LANimals as Coach in Apex Legends Pro League
On Monday March 27th, Lou, who currently plays with the LANimals in the ALGS, announced via Twitter they had a super big announcement that everyone is going to love. That super big announcement was the addition of a coach to the LANimals team for the remainder of the Apex Legends Pro League and should they make it, the Split 2 Playoff Finals as well.
The LANimal Kingdom
The LANimal’s are an Orgless team in the Apex Legends Global Series Pro League Split 2, but they’re anything but new, and have all been with major, endemic organizations in the past. Trenton "Lou" Clements has played for FlyQuest, Rogue, Counter Logic Gaming and most recently, Sentinels as far back as March of 2022 when he participated in the Box Fight Championship Pro Series.
His teammates have similar pedigrees, as Mac "Albralelie" Beckwith is currently a TSM content creator and has played under the flags of TSM, Cloud9 and Team Liquid. The third member of the LANimals, Paris "StayNaughty" Gouzoulis, has represented Cloud9 as recently as the ALGS 2022 Championship.
Suffice it to say, that despite being an Orgless team in the Apex Legends Pro League, these three have a stacked resume. And with their announcement, they’ve now added Esports Arena and Counter-Logic Apex Veteran, Ira "dooplex" Shepherd to their team as coach.
Duplex Leaving Optic
On a recent Twitch stream Dooplex mentioned a team meeting with Optic where he said he wanted to step down. He cited growing real life concerns related to his fathers health and recently buying a house as reasons it was growing more difficult to maintain a professional schedule for Apex Legends.
He’s not the first professional Apex Legends player to drop from pro play and take up the mantle of coaching. Last year, Will "TeQ" Starck left FURIA Esports to coach for Sentinels, though it wasn’t very long before he ended up on the team as a player.
Creating a LANimals Legacy
The real question is just how far the LANimals Legacy can reach. Every one of their players and now their coach has an impressive resume, but why did each of them leave behind these legacy teams to strike out on their own during the ALGS? It’s not uncommon to see unsigned teams who do well get picked up by bigger organizations. While each of these players is talented in their own right, do they have what it takes to succeed?
The answer? Maybe. Their first few days in the Apex Legends Pro League this past month wasn’t a great showing. They took 13th place on day 1 of the ALGS Split 2 with an 8th place finish as their best. They did wrap up nearly 20 kills across the series though, which would’ve been massive points if they could’ve placed higher. Day 2 wasn’t much better for them with an overall finish of 16th place that included a top 4 placement, but everything else was top 10 or worse and they only netted 10 kills across the series.
But that rocky start has changed in the last two game days for the LANimals with an overall 5th place on day 4 and day 5. The results are sink or swim, with the LANimals going out early or having massive games like their third round on day 4 where they took first place with 12 kills, or their final game on day 5, a first place with 13 kills.
Adding the coaching talents of Dooplex into the mix may be exactly what the LANimals need to close the gap and get a ticket to the next Paris LAN for the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs. But they’re going to need to pick up the slack and keep performing as they’re currently in 11th place overall and will need to break the top 10 if they want to keep their dreams alive.
Where and when to watch the ALGS Pro League
The ALGS Pro League continues every weekend on Saturday and Sunday until the end of May. Tune in on the official Apex Legends Twitch and YouTube Channel. And for all your questions about how the Apex Legends Global Series Pro League works, check out our summary here.
