In a recent livestream, Evan ‘Verhulst’ Verhulst revealed the difficulties of playing with Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen on TSM’s Apex Legends team, describing the experience as “miserable.”
Verhulst joined TSM in December 2021, and together with ImperialHal, they achieved top 10 finishes at five different ALGS LAN events and won multiple North American pro league titles, including the 2023 ALGS Championship and 2023 Split 1 Playoffs. Despite their apparent success, ImperialHal left TSM on May 13, 2024, to join Team Falcons.
During a June 6 livestream, Verhulst shared his true feelings about playing with one of Apex Legends’ top players. “Playing with Hal some days was miserable, it was miserable. That’s what sucked. It was hard,” Verhulst said in response to questions from his Twitch chat.
Verhulst explained that ImperialHal often got angry during games and said things he didn’t mean in an emotional state. This behavior led Verhulst and TSM’s third member, Jordan ‘Reps’ Wolfe, to avoid playing ranked games with Hal.
Verhulst recounted a specific instance where Hal repeatedly brought up a mistake Verhulst made at the 2023 World Championship. “Hal kept bringing that mistake up, brought it up like 20 times and he kept bugging me about it. I told him to stop… Like I get I made a mistake… He was acting in person like he does online. I literally told him I would punch him in the face if he didn’t shut up. Then he’s quiet the rest of LAN… And then we win Champs,” Verhulst said.
However, Verhulst also acknowledged that Hal’s intensity contributed to their success and praised his consistent performance and dedication to Apex Legends.
ImperialHal, known for his toxic tendencies and intensity in matches, responded on his stream the same day, accusing Verhulst of seeking attention. “All this sh** that he said on stream, we’ve talked about as a team. This was a thing before. So now, all of a sudden, he wants to talk about it on stream as if Twitch chat is going to help him or something,” ImperialHal said.
Hal admitted he is hard to play with but argued it was also difficult to play with his former TSM teammates when they stopped trying in ranked or slacked off in pro matches. “Them two wanted to have fun, f*** around, take a hike, and have a picnic. Hold hands-type sh**. And I just wanted to not see the lobby every f***ing game,” Hal said.
Ultimately, Hal emphasized that no one forced Verhulst to stay on the team, and he chose to leave TSM to pursue other opportunities.
