Kungarna who finished outside top 20 in the ALGS are dominating in BLAST Titans

The BLAST Titans Battle Royale event will reach its climax tomorrow as the final 20 teams battle for their share of $24,000 (20,000 euros). The inaugural Apex Legends event for esports tournament organiser BLAST has had its fair share of surprises.

40 teams entered the arena, 18 of which were direct invites based on the ALGS EU Championship final standings. Of the 18 invites only 11 made it into the final 20 teams. The event has seen the team power rankings change, and one team in particular is firing on all cylinders. That team is Kungarna.

The big story of the event so far is Kungarna, who finished 22nd in the ALGS Year 1, but who are on a rampage at BLAST Titans. A Wild Card invite Kungarna finished first in group 1 with 95 points, finishing top 3 in five of their six matches.

Unlike Alliance and Gambit - who failed to reach the final 20 - Kungarna rack up kills as well as placements. Their group stage results could easily be dismissed given group 2 had less experience teams, but their run in the bracket stage was clinical.

In just four bracket matches Kungarna amassed a staggering 36 kills. To put that into perspective, Kungarna earned the same number of points from kills alone than 2nd place Navi got from kills AND placements. Navi have been a scary prospect but have been hot and cold so far, an attribute that will work against them in tomorrow's BLAST Titans Finals.

Kungarna's run in Group 2

Kungarna's run in the double elimination bracket

Match 1: 1st place - 10 kills
Match 2: 2nd place - 9 kills
Match 3: 3rd place - 12 kills
Match 4: 5th place - 5 kills

The reigning ALGS EU champions SCARZ.EU were formidable in their group 1. 77 Points from six games, including a 1st place and a whopping 14 kills in round 3. When it came to the bracket stage however, it wouldn't be until lower-bracket that SCARZ.EU secured their spot in the BLAST Titans Finals.

SCARZ were the unexpected winners of the ALGS EU Championship back in May, and the outspoken Mande shared his favourite thing about the day's results on broadcast. "You think I'm smiling because we're through, but I'm smiling because the Revenant Octane players didn't go through," said Mande.

A couple of big names fell foul to the lower-bracket, namely Gambit Esports and Alliance. The two teams were direct invites to BLAST Titans off the back off their top 10 at ALGS.

Alliance started strong with 3rd place in group 1, but just couldn't find their groove when it came to the bracket stage. In the upper-bracket four matches they managed just 11 points and in the lower-bracket they finished 9th, 16th, 20th and 17th place.

After the matches were over Alliance' Hakis voiced on Twitter his thoughts on the choice to rotate maps.

"World's Edge is obviously the best map but I don't mind having some variation as long as the variation isn't mid tourney." said Hakis. Alliance's Hakis went on to reply that multiple maps per event caused "layers of unnecessary RNG on top of each other".

Meanwhile Gambit Esports, another strong favourite given the experience and skill of IGL Hardecki, also came close to the Finals. Unlike Alliance, Gambit Esports' had a fairly miserable group stage (16th/20) but finished first in the lower-bracket round 1 (32 kills / 25 placement points). However, they crashed and burned in the second lower-bracket ending up in 17th place (8 kills / 5 placement point).

With the double elimination bracket stage over, the 40 teams have been rounded down to just 20. BLAST Titans has a prize pool of $24,000 USD (20,000 euros), with top 10 receiving prize money. The qualification for the BLAST Titans Finals also means they will be the 20 teams competing in the 3v3 Arenas event next week.