BLEED Esports win Steelseries Invitational with mystery third

BLEED Esports won the latest Steelseries Apex Legends invitational. They edged out the likes of 5Star and TSM across a marathon 12 game two day event. However, focus has swiftly turned to the identity of their mysterious third player who hid behind the alias of Raven, the teams coach.

With post ALGS Split 2 Playoffs rostermania in full swing, and the ALGS Championship Roster Lock swiftly approaching, the Steelseries Invitational gave fans a preview of some of the potential roster changes in North America.

BLEED Esports are one of several teams making roster changes during this mid season break. They chose to part way with Shooby and are searching for a new player. It appeared on the face of it that they were competing with coach Raven when the event kicked off on Saturday afternoon. However, with no disrespect intended to the multi-LAN winning coach, it became clear very quickly all was not as it seems.

"Raven" tore up the Steelseries invitational, dropping amongst the most kills and highest damage. But, who is this mystery player who seems set to join BLEED Esports? Naturally, Reddit detectives were quick to get to work trying to decipher the players identity.

It seems that this mystery player is YanYa, currently signed to Team Liquid, who won the Code Freedom Champions event earlier in the week. Liquid themselves were supposed to compete in this event, but backed out at the last second. While nothing is confirmed, chatter from fellow competitors seems to be enough to feel pretty confident that this is an accurate ID.

What's not clear is if this was a trial, or if its a done deal. If this event was a trial, it is hard to imagine how it could have gone better. Bleed were looking for some extra raw aggression in fights, and YanYa seems to have slotted in perfectly with what they are looking for.

The question will be who could possibly replace YanYa on Liquid. With plenty of other players seemingly changing teams, it appears there will once again be a 'merry-go-round' of player swaps and trades. E8, Complexity and C9 are other teams making changes.

BLEED's win ended up being incredibly narrow. An early exit in game 12 allowed several teams to hunt them down. In the end, just two points separated them from surprise package 5Star.

Top five:

Full standings and stats.

5Star really impressed across the event. yJelly, Vudo and Darklight were not on anyone's radar before the event got under way but had an incredibly strong day two performance. They will be frustrated to fall just short of a win, but can take a lot of pride in their performance.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for full coverage of the ALGS and all things Apex Legends.