Zer0 reflects on finally landing first Team Falcons ALGS LAN win

New Orleans was a brand new style of event for the ALGS, but it produced a familiar outcome. Team Falcons Zer0 and ImperialHal have won many LAN titles in their careers, but their ALGS Open title is their first since joining forces a year ago. It was also a first for teammate Wxltzy, who finally has his much deserved international title.

Team Falcons haven't just won their first LAN, they won it in style. It took them a mere six games to close out a Match Point win, much less than the average and one of the fastest LAN finals in the games history.

It's not clear if this victory is the start of another era of dominance for Zer0 and ImperialHal in the ALGS. Expectations have always been high for this team and pressure will be on for them in the upcoming ALGS Split 1 Pro League and subsequent Midseason Playoffs.

esports.gg spoke to Team Falcons IGL Rhys "Zer0" Perry after Team Falcons clinched the first ever ALGS Open Trophy.

Team Falcon's finals performance was blistering, with the team finishing in the top three in five of the six games of the tournament. Zer0 broke down how Team Falcons were able to navigate a match-point victory so quickly.

"So game one was pretty much the hardest zone possible. Bionomics on the extreme bottom right of the map, game two ends top core, extreme top left of the map. Getting twelve points in that was insane, we were playing really well. Basically we haven't lost a fight the entire tournament. In game five everything started clicking and we started playing insane."

One of the reasons behind Team Falcons kill heavy performance, says Zer0, is having former TSM player ImperialHal on Ballistic.

"I've wanted Hal on Ballistic for a long time, but it never really works because Ballistic is usually unbanned when Crypto is unbanned. Plus Fuse is usually unbanned when Ballistic is unbanned so he has to play Fuse. Then Wxltzy has to play Crypto. So we couldn't really swap. But him on Ballistic is like the best thing for his playstyle. Todays game one on Ballistic is the first game he's played on Ballistic in a while."

Game six, which ultimately became the final game of the ALGS Open, showcased how tense an end-game can be in top-level Apex Legends. Team Falcons found themselves in a really strong position early on, holding the solo-house north of Skyhook. However, they made the seemingly unusual call to give up the building in favour of a less covered spot underneath the train tracks. Zer0 explained how this was part of a bigger picture to secure the win.

"That back tracks spot is usually god spot for all the zones around there. But it pulled a bit more towards the building again, just after we left. But playing there first zone, especially with our comp and our loot means you are always going to be inted by someone."

Despite both dominating the ALGS for years, this is the first LAN win since Hal and Zer0 joined together and signed for Team Falcons. They have had some near misses, including a close second place at last summers Esports World Cup. How does Zer0 feel to have had that win after he and Hal's dynamics, interactions and performance have been under the microscope for the last year?

"I'm not going to try and argue that our [communication style] is healthy or anything! But we are two people who respect eachother enough and nothing we say really sticks. We go out together a lot and we don't start hating eachother randomly, especially outside of game!"

The ALGS Open was the first LAN event to feature the new Legend Ban system. Previous ALGS events have always seen a tight Legend meta, with the ALGS Championship in Sapporo being heavily dominated by Newcastle.

"Legend Bans are really good good for the good teams, there aren't a lot of flexible players at all. Controller players struggle playing different characters but [Wxltzy] is probably the most flexible controller player. He went from hard IGLing on Bangalore to playing Crypto. Not many people can really handle that."

Additionally, the ALGS Open was also a brand new take on Apex Legends LAN competition. The usual 40 team format was replaced by a 160 team straight double-elimination competition featuring teams from the Challenger Circuit who would never usually appear on LAN. Twerkaholics, for example, made LAN finals but are not even competing in the Americas Pro League. Zer0, however, was not a fan of this new LAN format.

"I think the format is a pretty horrendous idea. The idea is cool because you want teams that don't usually have the ability to show out to have their big break. However, Apex is the least gatekept esport in the world. It's an open qual to Pro League to then play against the best teams.

"I think groups are a good idea. For us, we had 100 points round one in a bad lobby, then round two we get target inted by the team that won the first game and we get taken out. This put us in losers and means we can't get top ten seed for finals even though we won like three of the next five lobbies. We have the most points across the LAN but can't get a good seed."

Expectations have always been high around Team Falcons, but those expectations are also matched by the team. All three players are highly ambitious and expect constant success in competition. It has been a bit of a surprise to see it take a year for Team Falcons to grab a LAN win, and that is something that Zer0 is openly prepared to admit.

"[The first LAN title] definitely took longer than expected. Considering last year, we had one event in 20th, but the other three were very very winnable. Probably should have won two at least! Watching other people take my trophy every LAN was just depressing me over and over again."

Team Falcons and Zer0 will look to continue their momentum when the ALGS Pro League resumes later this month ahead of the ALGS Midseason Playoffs.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for full coverage of the ALGS and all things Apex Legends.