Spacestation Gaming don’t enter the 2024 Apex Legends Global Series Split One Playoffs as favorites. That honor is reserved for TSM and DarkZero, the two teams that have won every single ALGS LAN, counting Zer0’s win under Reignite. But don’t tell Josue “Phony” Ruiz that.
“I feel like we’re definitely going to win,” Phony told Online Esports ahead of the Split One Playoffs in Los Angeles. He also assured us every other player at LAN feels the exact same way, providing a glimpse into the mindset of these competitors. But Phony’s confidence is clear in the way he speaks, just as it is in the way he plays—confident in letting his Apex teammates make plays when they see them, confident in the practice they’ve put in building to this point, and confident he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.
Phony’s rise up the Apex ranks has been steady. He made his name on several smaller teams and in lower-tier competition like Esports Arena’s now-defunct Series E. But as his results kept improving, so did his stature, from one of North America’s best free agent teams in Dubblyew to representing Esports Arena at LAN, where Phony said he realized he truly belonged and could win at the highest level of Apex.
He followed that up with a move to FaZe Clan, reaching match point in the final two LANs of the 2023 ALGS season. Now, he’s back at LAN once again with the new Spacestation lineup, featuring just one change from last year’s FaZe team.
“We take a lot more fights than we used to on the FaZe lineup,” Phony said when questioned about Spacestation’s approach. Since last year, the roster left FaZe and also parted ways with Snip3down, picking up 2023 Split Two champion Brody “Xynew” Geissler in his stead. Phony called Xynew one of the “top fighters in the world,” helping clear the way for SSG to pursue fights more aggressively and be confident in their ability while moving around the map.
Again, confidence. Spacestation doesn’t have the public reputation of being the best team in the world (the competitive Apex subreddit just voted them the eighth-best competing at LAN), but with a former LAN winner in Xynew and plenty of experience in Phony and Frexs, it’s tough to shake the thought that the hyper-consistent SSG squad will be around in the final few circles. In fact, Frexs has been on match point when the ALGS Championship was won for the last three years in a row—a streak the team is eager to break with a trophy.
As far as their play this weekend goes, Phony isn’t stressed about what the team needs to do to succeed. Confidence in his own calls and using his teammates and their strengths well is the name of the game. ”With a lot of these teams… I feel like they’re still finding comfortability on what they want to do, what character they can actually play,” he said. “We find that very early. Our consistency is built up from there. We already know how we have to play, it’s just fixing the little mistakes along the way.”
From a tier-two standout all the way to the biggest, brightest stage in Apex, Phony and SSG aren’t scared of the spotlight, even if it’s not on them at the moment. And if they do manage to dethrone the TSMs and DarkZeroes of the world, it will be that confidence that takes them into the stratosphere.
