Location: A sold out Daiwa Premist Dome, Sapporo, Japan. The event: Algs Championship, the largest Apex Legends Algs tournament to date. Winner: Gone text.
Coming from England is the Algs Championship in Sapporo a completely different beast than Esports tournaments I am used to. The audience is polite and offers soft applause when a team gets a death. There are few songs, and none of them difficult. But this is a society that clearly, passionately loves Apex legends – does it only in its own way.
It was a new Energy Come Championship Sunday. Not a rough, but a feeling of expectation. Of expectations. After four days of intense action, everything rests today. After such an intense week with tournament games, after such an incredible event that has shown the heart and soul in the Apex Legends fan base, the last day had to live up to the hype. And after nine matches did: Gonxt was crowned champion.
Thegamer captured IgL Filipe 'Hiaka' Morgado after the match to break down their victory and see how they feel after holding the victory at the biggest Algs tournament to date.
“It still feels unreal,” Hiarka tells just a few minutes after lifting the trophy of the Algs Championship. “It's like I'm in a simulation.” His phone blows up with messages to the point where Twitter crashes. He can't stop staring at the medal hung around his neck.
“That means everything,” he continues. “This is what each player wants at least once in his life. And to me it means even more, first, it is in Japan, and secondly, it is a championship. It's not a playoffs, it's the biggest tournament of the year, it's the best 40 teams in the world. That means everything. “
No one would have predicted this result. Gonext is good, old -fashioned sub -dogs. In a lobby with names like Phillip 'Imperialhal' dose on Superteam Falcons, which fights against Esports World Cup winner Alliance, and goes to the head with home favorites Fnatic, Gonext is relative Nobodies. While Hiarka and Jose 'Uxacko' Llosa have been on the competitive top scene for several years, their winnings surprised this weekend.
“I didn't expect [to win]”Hiarka tells me,” but I always thought. I'm not afraid of anyone in the game. We have the capacity – we also had happiness, it is Apex, it is a Battle Royale – but we had the right commissions, the right luck and we won. “
But it was not smooth sailing. Gonext has had a successful, about discreet tournament and reaches the final through the winner's console by Round Robin competition. But today Glext disappeared in 14th place after four matches, which only put 17 points on the board as the complexity approaches the match point.
“I felt very leaning,” explains the Portuguese player. “Since we lost ourselves, we were not bad luck or anything. I am grateful that we have the coach […] He just calmed me down and said “we can win, we can win” and then the boys slowly came back and after that victory on the e-district we were like, “Nah, we win”. “
That victory took Gonext to the match point. Only two matches later, they secured another victory, this time at Storm Point, to claim the trophy. But what now? Where does Gonext go next?
“As a team [we’re not going to] change. We are not perfect, we have to fix some things, but we will not change. It just changes how people look at us and how much they respect us now. “
Hiarka says he has had a wonderful time in Japan – even though I imagine that the events in the last few hours would make all situations feel good. He was beaten by how polite the people are and the fans' passion in Sapporo. You can see the scam in his face when he reminds the fans cheering for his team when they won, even though Gonext was such sub -dogs with few dedicated supporters.
Sparsely sext has etched in Alg's historical books, achieved greatness. Only a handful of other teams have ever tasted. But there is one thing that Hiarka takes home to Portugal on his 5 flight tomorrow morning – as well as his winner's medal.
“If you believe in yourself, it is enough. It doesn't matter what others think. “
Next:
Apex Legends creates “Gigantic Lan Party” 480 player tournament for Algs year 5
Apex Legends introduces Legend Bans, a new map and its largest LAN still in Algs year 5.
