Fire Beavers, Visas secured, have sights set on London

The ALGS EMEA Pro League resumed with Groups A vs B going head to head. Teams are once again competing across nine weeks and a regional finals to qualify for another LAN in London. The Fire Beavers took an opening day victory, dominating across both maps.

The top nine teams, and the winners of the regional finals will qualify for the playoffs in the EMEA region. Despite missing Aurora and Fire Beavers at LAN, the region as a whole managed to keep their LAN all their qualification slots and will still send a strong group to the next Playoffs.

The Fire Beavers entered Split 2 with a point to prove. They missed out on the Split 1 Playoffs due to Visa issues. The Regional Finals winners had to watch from the sidelines, due to the long delay between application and approval when applying for a Visa in the UK as a Russian national.

However, they have their Visas approved, and are determined to get their chance to perform at LAN and bring home a title.

Their performance showed a true determination and desire to make up for lost opportunities. They were the clear winners of Day one, outplacing second by a huge margin.

Dispute all the furor over the Controller class, the Fire Beavers are one of the few teams not using anyone who can scan the zone. Instead, they fight their way. Even on Worlds Edge, where the Fire Beavers land Fragment, they still adopt an edge strategy.

This rotate map provided by Apex Legends Status perfectly summarises Fire Beavers gameplan. Get onto the edge and use their mechanical supremacy to roll teams and work their way in. But, why do this from such a central position? Fragment has primarily been used by early rotate teams.

The Fire Beavers willingness to fight and play edge has helped them see off any challenge in Fragment, and they 'own' both Fragment East and West. Having a central position allows them to take powerful spots and have priority to whatever location they wish to fight from, instead of fighting teams attempting to gatekeep them. Fire Beavers' success comes in part down to the control they have over their game and the fights they take.

They opened the ALGS Pro League in EMEA with a ginormous 18 kill win on Worlds Edge, and then closed out with back to back Storm Point victories winning three of the days six games.

Their average of over 7 kills per game shows exactly why they feel comfortable with this playstyle. Their mechanics are top tier, and they are a major contender not just for the Pro League title but for a LAN title too.

Alliance are also buoyed by recent Visa approval. Young controller player Effect missed out on the playoffs for the same reason as the Fire Beavers, but also now has approval to attend the Split 2 Playoffs should Alliance qualify.

While many ALGS Pro League teams did swap to Catalyst, Alliance took a different route. They adopted Rampart, who is part of the new Controller class across all six games.

It was theorised that Rampart would be too slow for pro play, her Amped Cover goes up too slowly and you can easily bypass her walls with Grenades or a simple flank. Some teams had used Rampart in the ALGS Challenger Circuit, but paired her with Wattson to reduce this risk.

Instead, Alliance are pairing her with Seer and Valkyrie. Where Rampart has been excelling is in delaying fights against the Seer Catalyst combination. Sitting behind her Walls when you get pushed by a Seer Ult and Catalyst wall combination is strong. The Seer Ult only shows diamonds through the Catalyst wall, but won't show if a player is behind a Rampart Amped Cover or not. Rampart was hardly talked about in the build up to Pro League, but could she be a strong counter to the new meta?

Alliance have a long history of innovating in the ALGS. They often break perceptions and make things work when people theorise that it just isn't possible. They were first to deploy Caustic on Storm Point, which quickly became a popular choice for several teams.

What is yet to be seen is if other teams will be inspired by Alliance and adopt Rampart. Already, one team switched to Rampart mid competition. Will we see more Ramparts in tomorrows games, or in the Pro League going forward?

There was some question marks over how Acend would perform this Pro League split. They were the top EMEA performer at LAN, but based their gameplan strongly around the use of Crypto and Wattson. That game plan has now been completely nullified by the Season 16 changes. Crypto can no longer scan beacon and skeptics wondered if Acend could still perform strongly.

Despite then changes, Acend are still using Crypto, adapting their gameplan around his new ability to scan enemy positions remotely and are proving critics wrong.

Acend took fourth overall, particularly performing strongly on Storm Point. Their classic Acend consistency shone through on Storm Point, with consistent end games and healthy kill totals.

While EMEA returns tomorrow for groups A vs C, the Fire Beavers will have to wait till March 18th to get back in action and build on their momentum gained today.

For full results from the ALGS Pro League, check out our ALGS score hub.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more ALGS coverage and esports news.