The GLL Apex Legends Series (NA & EMEA)

GLL, an online tournament hosting platform, made their debut in competitive Apex Legends by launching their tournament. This tournament was sub-categorized into two regions: North America and EMEA, with a prize pool of $25,000 for each region. It was one of the largest tournaments following the Apex Legends Pre-Season Invitational held earlier this year in September.

Both of these tournaments adhered to a similar format and similar set of rules. 20 teams participated in this Tournament. Ten of which were invited based on their performances at previous tournaments and their general overall recognition, while the remaining ten teams were teams who had showcased spectacular performances and earned their spot through the open qualifiers, which took place on the 7th and 8th of December. Both rounds, the finals and qualifiers, had a point-based system.

Qualifiers

Amongst all of the teams that signed up, only 40 were allowed to take part in the qualifiers. The qualifiers consisted of 3 rounds. Points were awarded on positioning and eliminations per game. The ten teams that dominated the competition were allowed to compete in the finals for the $25,000 on the line. 

Finals 

The ten qualified teams and the ten invitees faced off providing a nail-biting, highly entertaining and competitive gaming extravaganza. The points were awarded based on the following criteria:

• Elimination provides 1 Point.
• Placement points are distributed as the following per round:
• 1st place - 12 Points.
• 2nd place - 9 Points.
• 3rd place - 7 Points.
• 4th place - 5 Points.
• 5th place - 4 Points.
• 6th - 10th place - 2 Points.
• 11th - 15th place - 1 Point.
• 16th - 20th place - 0 Points.

The tournament commenced and a total of 12 rounds were played. Amidst these rounds, the audience were kept engaged by the action-packed gameplay the tournament. All the teams exhibited their best performances; however, some were more empowering than the others and were able to subdue their opponents and earn a boatload of points. 

Results

NA Tournament:

Although the tournament was extremely competitive there was no stopping the TSM (Team SoloMid). The team who had already proven their worth in the Pre-Season Invitational had once again received the honour of leaving Victorious. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that amongst the top 5 teams were 2 teams who had made their way through the qualifiers which are a positive sign that tournaments like this nurture and encourage emerging talent to participate in the tournament and boost their esteem. The $25,000 were distributed to the top 4 teams which were:

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EMEA

The competitive scene in the EMEA was similar, and Luminosity Gaming towered over their competition with their distinctive playstyle, emerging triumphant. Following Luminosity in the 2nd place was Virtus.pro and Reciprocity secured the 3rd place.

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Key Events

Atop all of the events that took place, perhaps the most eye-catching was the foul committed by Alliance which cost them a great fortune. Despite the rules forbidding players to heal outside the zone, Alliance, for some reason, did not abide by this rule and lost their second position and dropped to 5th which was a great loss for them given that they put up a great fight in terms of competitiveness. The decision made to deduct points is exemplary since it shows how the rules and regulations must be respected and the consequences if done otherwise. 

Secondly, the endgame fights were especially interesting and extremely tense. Multiple moves were being made every second. The blink of an eye was enough to miss it. Be it the endgame Caustic plays or the range of emotions that fluctuated with every knockdown in the audience. This tournament brought out a distinctive number of playstyles which helped to discover interesting strategies and tactics which are being more popular in the apex scene like the wide use of Gibraltar for his extremely useful Gun shield and his surprisingly effective bombardment. Hiding spots, defensive movement, better accuracy were some of them.

Viewership

 A little peek at the viewership charts apprises us that this tournament was viewed by a fair number of audience with peak viewers reaching 28,000 due it being streamed live on both YouTube and Twitch, two of the biggest online video platforms.

Conclusion

All in all, this tournament was a trailer to what is upcoming in the Apex esports scenario and how it is gradually developing. It is amongst the building blocks of what is eventually speculated to rise to a skyscraper’s height supported by the fact that it already has a fairly large audience.

Image provided by GLL