Alliance win marathon EMEA ALGS Regional Finals

Alliance won a marathon nine game ALGS Regional Final, which had 11 teams on match point in the final game. Alliance have had issues with match point format in the past, and will be delighted to finally take a win in this format.

Vexed Gaming will be left frustrated, they were the first team to match point but just could not see out the win. Alliances victory also denied Vexed a win in the overall Pro League standings too.

It was a dramatic conclusion to the EMEA Pro League. The match point format, combined with the points that could be earned towards the overall standings created huge variations in which teams were headed to LAN throughout the day. Teams both needed to win to guarantee a LAN spot, or be as high up the leaderboard as possible when someone else won to finish within the top nine.

It was double delight for Alliance. Of course, they won the ALGS regional finals and took first place in the overall Pro League standings. But, they also broke their match point duck. Alliance have often found themselves in the driving seat in match point tournaments but struggled to close out the victory.

They were denied by the Fire Beavers in the last Regional Finals. But now they head to London with two major boosts. The confidence of this victory, and the confidence that Effect having his visa secured will provide Alliance cannot be over stated. Effect has made a huge impact this split, just as he did the last.

Additionally, Alliance have shown great resilience today. They were handed a horrendous set of zones on both maps, but somehow made it work and maneuvered themselves into position to win the tournament. Sometimes, RNG helps hand you a comfortable victory, but Alliance had to scrap for every single point today.

For Effect and Alliance, July provides a major opportunity to take home a title and secure their spot as one of the all time greatest teams in Apex Legends. They have somewhat gone under the radar, overshadowed by teams like TSM and DarkZero on the global stage.

In particular, Alliance will not be worried by the meta shift at LAN. From Ash, to Rampart, to Newcastle Alliance have had one of the widest repertoires of any team in EMEA. Hakis provides immense experience, and will be desperate to secure his spot among the likes of ImperialHal, Zer0 and Sweetdreams as a top tier IGL. Many would argue that he already sits in that bracket, but a win in London would truly cement his status among the best of the best.

In every match point tournament, there is always one run away team. Vexed Gaming took up that mantle, reaching match point in four games.

They secured match point in dramatic fashion. They dropped into game four needing just three points, but got stuck out near Staging with a total of 49 points to their name as it stood. Several teams focused them on their rotate in towards Landslide. IGL Matafe was eliminated, leaving Tyler and Unlucky to survive. Just two teams dying would hand them the extra placement point they needed to reach 50.

The controller duo, who have both had incredible seasons, managed to see it out. Some inspirational surviving helped Vexed Gaming secure those extra couple of points to reach the match point threshold.

Vexed Gaming will feel disappointed to have failed to close out victory today. There is almost a curse in the EMEA region on the first team to reach match point. They had opportunities to close out a victory. However, the longer the tournament went on the less likely you felt Vexed Gaming were to win.

Even a swap to the Gibraltar Caustic combination did not give them enough power in final circles. A couple of bad zone pulls also worked against Vexed Gaming.

Aurora, who missed out on the last LAN due to visa issues, snagged a LAN spot at the last second. They had a monstrous duo game, and almost denied Alliance their victory. While they did not win and extend the tournament, in some ways losing in second was better for Aurora. The tournament ending in game nine locked Aurora into the top ten, and they have now booked a ticket to London.

This ends a really impressive comeback for Aurora, who really struggled at the start of the ALGS Pro League split. London is finally on the horizon for this team. Their visas are already secured and they will be determined to make their mark having missed out last time around.

Horizon Union will perhaps be the most disappointed, they needed just an average performance to remain in the qualification positions, but finished 18th overall and missed the top 10 by just 2 series points.

For full ALGS Pro League results, check out our ALGS Score hub here.

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