Team UNITE dominate their way to the ALGS playoff finals

The ALGS playoff finals are set, with 20 teams set to go head to head for the title tomorrow. Team UNITE dominated the losers bracket, firmly placing Wattson back into the ALGS meta. The team from APAC North will head into the finals with confidence.

Elsewhere, some notable teams missed out on the finals. Namely Hardecki and Players. They were among the favourites to take the title, but instead will be departing Sweden much earlier than planned. CLG, who have risen to fame thanks to NanoFrys also missed out the top 10.

The 10 teams from losers bracket will join OpTic Gaming and the rest of the top 10 from the winners bracket in tomorrows finals, starting at 4pm CEST. The finals will follow the match point format.

Coming from APAC North, Team UNITE have been one of several teams to bring Wattson to Sweden. Formerly a staple pick worldwide, Wattson has fallen off in North America and EMEA. There was a lot of talk from both those regions that the other regions would have to adapt to their gamestyles and metas, but that has not been the case so far this weekend.

Team UNITE aren't just sitting in a building, surrounded by fences. They racked up more kills than any team in the lobby, a huge 31 kills. That's an average of 5.2 per game - very impressive without aggressive legends such as Ash. They are also one of several teams defying collective understanding about the need for Gibraltar on Storm Point.

With their place in the finals firmly secured with one game to spare, Team UNITE turned guns on Players. They picked a hyper aggressive composition of Octane, Bloodhound, and Horizon, landed on Players at Lava Siphon with the intention of stopping them from qualifying. They wanted to clear their drop spot for finals - a cruel but smart decision.

While Players and UNITE never fought, they stole a significant portion of their loot and disrupted their gameplan. Players only took 2 points in the final game and didn't qualify.

There was clear confidence from Team UNITE - they seem to be making their playstyle work on the global stage, and having removed Players from the lobby should have clear drops on both maps tomorrow. The biggest question is, having required the losers bracket to qualify, can they mix it with the very top teams like OpTic?

Team UNITE will benefit from the match point format, with Wattson and Crypto they are set up to hold down positions, gather information and dominate end games.

NRG will be joining Team UNITE in finals, after they found a stronger vein of form. The trio of Sweetdreams, Rocker, and Nafen have struggled to play to their best so far in Sweden. They have experimented with several legends, unable to find the combination that fits them the best on the global stage.

They reverted to Valkyrie, Gibraltar, and Caustic for the losers bracket round 2, and performed a lot better than previous rounds.

In particular, Sweet really came to the fore in the losers bracket. He went on a massive solo rampage in game 2. NRG racked up so many kills that game, that they earned more points than GMT who took first place.

In previous rounds, NRG had made some questionable Valkyrie Skyward dives - sometimes landing themselves in trouble. However, on this occasion, they executed a play perfectly - understanding that they had to clean out one side of the zone. Eventual winners GMT would've pinched NRG had they remained at the tree.

One thing that NRG have in their favor tomorrow is reduced expectations and a lot of big-game experience. In Sweet, they have one of the best IGLs anywhere in the world. Despite their struggles so far this weekend, you'd be foolish to write them off.

Team Elevate will also be joining Team Unite in tomorrow's finals. They dramatically secured 9th overall, winning the final game. If Spacestation Gaming, who are also through, denied Elevate the win - that would've denied them qualification.

Passionate scenes filled the LAN center, as Elevate loudly celebrated their victory. However, this ruckus was quickly dampened as they all turned their attention to the overall leaderboard and waited for the final results.

They soared from last on the leaderboard into 9th, and celebrations quickly resumed.

Elevate found themselves in a final 3 situation near tree, alongside Spacestation Gaming and Fennel. Crucially, Fennel were just on the cusp of the top 10 too.

It was thanks to the Kraber of Xenial that Elevate were able to help Fennel into third, presenting them with the 3v3 to make finals. This was one of the best LAN comebacks in Apex history.

Don't underestimate the impact that the major confidence boost could have on their performance tomorrow.

Full standings on Battlefy.

The ALGS playoff finals take place tomorrow at 4pm CEST. For full coverage - keep it esports.gg