EMEA ALGS Recap: K1CK and Rebel dominate the weekend

After an extended break to facilitate for the Apex Season 11 update, the Pro League returned this weekend. Following the addition of Ash and the CAR SMG, would any teams benefit from the changes to the meta? K1ck came into the weekend in the best form, having put a number of impressive performances down in tournaments during the 3 week break. There was also building pressure on Rebel, who had performed way below expectations in the previous weeks.

K1CK came into this weekend in strong form, having secured a win in the Code Red finals last weekend, beating the likes of TSM, NRG and Sentinels along the way. As they came through Pre Season qualifiers, K1CK earned a reputation for being hyper aggressive in game.

K1CK were led by Ojrein, who was the day's overall kill leader, dropping a huge 17 kills. This was 5 more than Alliance Yuki, who placed 2nd on the kill leaderboard.

Crucially, this big victory earned K1CK the maximum 12 points towards the overall leaderboard. With just 2 weeks to go sit in 3rd which would qualify them for LAN. Due to the small time left for anyone to displace them.

See the full standings here.

Rebel had been one of the biggest underperformers of the Pro League so far. The Winter Circuit Playoff champions were sat in 36th place heading into this weekend. This position would have seen them relegated back to the Challenger Circuit. However, Rebel found their true form this weekend (at last!) and secured a strong 2nd place finish behind K1CK.

They put in a very consistent performance, not finishing below 7th in any of the games this weekend. Their pinnacle was an impressive game victory against Alliance. This was their first win in any Pro League game. As a result they have launched a huge 19 places up the leaderboard into 17th. They do now have an outside chance of sneaking into the top 10, but they will have to maintain this consistency for the rest of Pro League.

Future Perfect also secured a large jump in the leaderboard, winning the other matchday to sneak into the Top 10.

However, while Rebel were able to turn their fortunes around, the same cannot be said for the SoloQGoats. The fan favourite team, made up of DiffQ, ShivFPS and Zipeth continued to struggle and now sit just above the relegation spaces.

SoloQGoats are famed for ShivFPS remaining loyal to Bangalore no matter what - but is this off meta comp could be costing them in the Pro League. It might also be the addition of Valkyrie that is causing some of the SoloQGoat difficulties. Their style of play has always been open space control and fighting (everyone in their path!) on the edge of the zone.

However, Valkyrie means that more teams are playing deeper in the zone. This is having two effects on the team. There are less teams on edge for the SoloQGoats to fight, and when they can find teams on edge in later zones, there are a lot more teams around.

Furthermore, their struggles appear to be affecting their team identity. They have experimented with a number of legends this season. Changing legends so often (besides their Bangalore!) shows that they are not feeling confident in their gameplay, and it is surely also affecting their consistency.

If they are to avoid the bottom 8 places, the SoloQGoats will need to rediscover the form that saw them secure a 3rd place in the Apex Championships. The aggression and energy that have been missing are sorely needed. However, as K1CK esports have shown, a big week can move you a number of places up the leaderboard.

This weekends Pro League was the first since the Season 11 update, and the addition of Ash and the changes to Wattson. Wattson did not return to the ALGS, but Ash entered at a solid 9% pickrate.

There are only 2 weeks of Pro League left, and time is running out to secure the 10 LAN spots on offer. Teams like Gambit are probably secured LAN already, and will be looking to maintain a good seeding.

Will more EMEA teams be swapping to Ash? How will teams outside the LAN positions reshuffle their gameplans for the final stretch?

As always, for more Apex content, stick around at Esports.gg.