The final weekend of ALGS EMEA action has seen the rise of new threats. On Day 9 Rebel stormed up the rankings, and Day 10 was the day of rising stars 69IQ.
With the unfortunate news that the Omicron variant has lead to the LAN playoffs being cancelled, a new regional playoffs are set to take place. However, this new saving grace for teams in 10th to 20th place is no reason to slouch, as some of the top teams in EMEA like Zeta division or Na'Vi still have a chance to steal some spots. Meanwhile, 69IQ and Guild were the big winners of Day 10.
The rise of 69IQ and GUILD
Today's ALGS EMEA Pro League games really showcased the rise of new kings of EMEA. Teams 69IQ and GUILD have been playing phenomenal Apex in the EMEA Pro League. The teams have been on quite the rise over the past couple weeks and they aren't close to stopping. With GUILD and 69IQ placing consistently placing high with equally high kill games, these teams are becoming a force to be reckoned with.
This news comes just a day after Rebel went from potential relegation to top 6 on Day 9.
69IQ the biggest winners in Day 10
At the end of the day, 69IQ came out on top of today's games with a total of 67 points. This lead was the highest out of all the round 5 standings, with yesterday's Rebel only managing 61 points. Even in their own group, 2nd place was Alliance with only 51 points. This just goes to show the sheer dominance that Smeggytoe, Slayers and Kswinniie have over EMEA. And in an interview following their victory, Smeggytoe said this:
"What we've lacked as a team, we've (Smeggytoe and Slayers) both been on controller, we both love shooting people, its just we don't put ourselves in the right situations I guess. And Swinnie is doing that for us now".
26-year old Elwin "Kswinniie" Echeveria is no strange to success, having been a part of UNDERRATED last ALGS season. UNDERRATED were a consistent top performer in the latter stages of ALGS Year 1, finishing 4th in the ALGS Championship EMEA finals in June.
Alliance's bootcamp paying off
Another fan favorite of the EMEA region is Alliance. They've had a bit of a rough start to the ALGS Pro League with mediocre placements. The community knows that the squad is capable of and they haven't seen a performance up to their expectations.
However, the team has been bootcamping together at one of the Alliance training facilities. The bootcamp appears to be paying off as Alliance are getting their groove back, with three top 5 finishes in a row. With high kill games and great plays throughout the games today, its easy to say that Alliance is back.
Roster shuffles
In EMEA, there's been a couple roster changes that have had a impacts on today's matches in the ALGS EMEA Pro League. The Portuguese squad of NEW Esports' TylerFPS has taken a spot on YungMoneyGuild, as Buck had stepped down. As a response, NEW Esports took on uwuowocatboys' Vjeix. This was fortunate timing as uwuowocatboys had recently disbanded. This meant that the EMEA standings only involved 39 squads and some lobbies would only contain 19 squads.
Time is running low for ALGS EMEA
With the unfortunate news of the Omicron variant cancelling the upcoming LAN playoffs, there are 10 more slots to qualify for the regional playoffs. However, popular teams like NaVi or Zeta Division currently are not going to make the cut. There is only 1 day left of matches for teams to qualify for the ALGS EMEA Pro League regional playoffs. With the last day coming up, tune in to Esports.gg and Apex's livestreams to follow the action.