Reignite, without star man Genburten, win ALGS Playoff LAN

Australian team Reignite has won the ALGS Playoffs in Stockholm, Sweden. They needed just seven games to close out victory under a dramatic match point format.

Reignite were one of the favorites coming into the tournament, but suffered a crucial blow. Genburten, considered the best controller player in the world by many, contracted COVID during their bootcamp. JMW, from the United Kingdom, was drafted in at the last second to replace him. Elsewhere, there were very strong showings from Team Liquid and Team Unite.

Reignite started the day as they meant to go on, winning the opening game with an impressive 10 kills. They have quietly gone about their business all week, steadily working their way through the group stages and winners bracket.

The australian team absolutely own the APAC South region. They won both the first and second split of Pro League. Critics claimed that they wouldn't be used to dealing with the likes of Alliance, TSM and NRG. They've shown that the Apex scene is more than just EMEA and North America.

While Reignite have a fantastic winning record in APAC South, that is with their full roster. Genburten has been the key to their success and they prepared with him. After he tested positive quite early on in the bootcamp, but subsequently tested negative. This meant that Reignite did not prepare with a substitute as they expected Genburten to be available for the weekend.

But following a positive COVID test on the first day of official tournament testing Reignite were left looking for a last second substitute. They found JMW, of team Kungarna in the EMEA region. He flew out and joined up with the team just before the tournament started.

Reignite took until game five to reach the important 50 point threshold and become match point eligible. In the online regional Split 1 playoffs, Reignite died second or third in four of their five match point eligible games-and lost out to team Dream Fire. This earned them the reputation of match point bottlers.

On the biggest stage, they shook off this title. In game seven they overcame almost every possible obstacle on Storm Point to get that crucial match win.

Their game seven efforts could've been over very early. NRG had set a trap for them in the tunnel in the centre of Storm Point. Reignite spotted that NRG were laying in wait and decided to use Valkyries skyward dive to head over the cliff and bypass NRG's position.

Reignite also picked up a Kraber, and used it to devastating effect. In an endzone that was almost all water, Luminosity and OpTic were all that stood between Reignite and the title.

Even the most diehard Australian Apex fan would admit that there was a fair share of fortune in the way the final zone played out.

Luminosity Gaming threw an inch perfect Caustic Nox Gas grenade onto Reignite, killing their Gibraltar Sharky. This could've been game over, but OpTic Gaming denied Luminosity the chance to push. Instead, OpTic and LG fought while Reignite quietly reset, and then cleaned up the zone. A truly dramatic end to a fantastic weekend of Apex Legends in Sweden.

In the post match interview, Zero dedicated the victory to Genburten. When asked about substitute JMW, he added "3 days ago he was sat in his bedroom in London. We had literally never spoken to him before". JMW had to call his parents and organise a last second flight and lift to the airport to even make it. It cannot be overstated how impressive it is to play with someone for the first time at LAN, and take home the title.

It was a perfect pickup for Reignite. JMW has recently swapped to controller and is a player who can "flex on the spot".

After taking home the title and his share of $250,000 JMW will return home to rejoin Team Kungarna. They'll head into the LCQ's to try and meet up with Reignite at the ALGS Championships in July.

It was a fantastic weekend of Apex from Team Liquid. They took 2nd place overall and can be very happy with their showing. Their 5.7 kills per game was an unbelievable showing on such a big occasion.

They have been incredibly consistent across all their group matches and the winners bracket. In particular, the latest addition to the Team Liquid roster Gilderson has been in unbelievable form all weekend. Team Liquid had slipped behind several other teams, but are now firmly back among the top teams in North America.

But the MVP of Team Liquid was undeniably FunFPS.

He took home the accolade for the most kills in finals, earning him the Apex Predator award. Most notably, he did this while playing Gibraltar - a legend that usually anchors and plays defensive. Formerly of Complexity, FunFPS is one of the best Gibraltar players anywhere in the world.

Team Liquid will hope to keep building and developing on the progress they made this weekend and find more success at home. They have outperformed expectations and can't be too disheartened as they head home.

Team Liquids best chance to take home the title was in Game 6. They were denied victory by JMW of Reignite, who was ratting solo. Then, NRG slid down and eliminated Team Liquid. They had a strong spot in zone and had they not been sandwiched by these two teams - they had a serious shot at victory.

Full standings and game by game results on Battlefy.

It was a disappointing day for home team Alliance-they failed to get going and stumbled to 16th overall. The team, based in Sweden pulled off an insane comeback to qualify for Sweden. They started in fine form, dropping over 200 points in the group stage and many considered them a serious team to watch. But after struggling in the winners bracket, taking 10th, their gameplan unravelled.

One of the big eyebrow raisers from their Pro League comeback was their use of Caustic on Storm Point. The Apex consensus was that Caustic was not suited to the more open map and teams had hardly used him until Alliance made the switch. They explained to esports.gg before heading to LAN that they hoped other teams wouldn't follow in their footsteps, as Caustic's power is much higher when you are one of very few in the lobby.

However, Caustic has been a very popular pick on both maps. He has been the third most popular legend across the playoffs, picked around 35% of the time and only exceeded by Valkyrie and Gibraltar.

The ALGS circuit will now turn towards the ALGS Championships in North Carolina. Qualified teams will begin preparation for the season ending tournament that will take place between July 7th and 10th. Other teams will be heading into the Championship LCQ's that take place next weekend.

For full coverage of all things Apex, stay tuned to esports.gg.