Image via ALGS
After what has been an incredible week of professional Apex Legends plays, Oblivion has beaten 39 others and emerged victorious as the winner of ALGS Year 5’s Championships.
The team put up an absolutely stonking fight in each and every match. This is always a tricky tournament to win in because of the match point dynamic on this last day, and winning takes a lot more work than you might think.
Every Team Did Their Best In ALGS’ Year 5 Finals, But There Could Only Be One Winner
Now, just to get you up to speed, teams begin the last day of an ALGS finals day with a few or no points whatsoever. They must then score with kills and wins until they reach 50. Once they hit that number, they can win the tournament simply by winning any subsequent match. Just not the one they hit the threshold during.
The first match of every ALGS finals day is always intense, but it doesn’t always define the overall winner. Falcons seemed as though they were onto a good thing after the first two matches, with two wins under their belts.
This was pretty astonishing, considering Hal had made headlines ahead of the tournament’s start after his wireless controller was banned in the hours before his first match. Of course, he worked hard alongside his team and put to bed any doubts that would cost him a few wins.
Match three went to Oblivion, featuring one of the most chaotic final circles I’ve ever seen. We had teams dunking on each other all over the place, preventing coordination for many individuals, but Oblivion managed to stay calm enough under the pressure to land in third place overall at this point in the tournament.
In Match four, Oblivion pushed hard, no doubt fueled by their previous win. As team after team fell, they kept on going, finding those strategic points of cover and eliminating enemy players when they had the opportunity. Drone detections were kicking off, but they still managed to keep on top of revives and hold out until the very end. Unfortunately for them, so did Crazy Thieves, and that team took the win in the final seconds of the match.
It was at this point, 6 AM in the UK, that my three-year-old son walked in and found me completely enthralled by the end of match four. At this point, Crazy Thieves had secured themselves fourth place overall, while Oblivion had snuck up to first with 49 points. This pretty much guaranteed that they’d be on match point in match six, but so too would S8ul, Falcons, and potentially Crazy Thieves. Of course, when you’re that close to ending the tournament, you paint a target on your back that every team is happy to aim at so they can go one more round.
Match five saw Oblivion go out pretty early on, as expected. Falcons held out and kept on going, aiming to get the 50 points needed to win in the next match. Crazy Thieves were next in line for hitting 50 and doing a very good job of going for it. They’ve got a few hugely competent players on the team and know how to coordinate to achieve their goals.
After a pretty tough battle to scrape as many points as possible, Falcons were the first team to hit Match Point. This made them a big target and caused it to be pretty much impossible for them to do much more. That doesn’t matter, though, because now they have the opportunity to win. S8ul ended on 49 when all their players were wiped, which is pretty awful when you know another team now has the chance to win.
Ninjas In Pyjamas took the win for the match, but Falcons were the only team going into the next round with Match Point. This isn’t unheard of, but it is scary. Most of my friends bet between seven and nine for how many matches a finals day will run, but I’ve seen it go as high as 14. S8ul and Oblivion ended on 49 points, so if Falcons get taken out early as predicted in the next match, then we would be in for three teams all on Match Point in the following one at the very least.
Match six is where things got tense. Quite a few teams were starting down the 50 points mark going into it, and that always brings chaos and ballsy plays. The final circle saw a couple of underdog teams catch p, including Grow Gaming, who made an incredible jump to 49, and TSM, who pushed as hard as possible to close the gap between them at Match Point, ending on that all-important 50.
Going into match seven, we had six teams on Match Point and ready to win. This really did feel like the end of the tournament. That feeling was quickly assuaged when those teams were swiftly taken out, and everyone else was given room to breathe and build up their points. This is exactly what ALGS is about: the teams and fans working together to bring out one more match and extend the excitement for as long as possible.
Match eight looked much the same as seven going in, just with a few more teams able to close it all down. Thanks to Fnatic, we got this next match, but every qualified team was ready to call it a day and win. Grow Gaming ended up with just one player in a position to win, not one I envy, while Crazy Thieves went into the fourth ring in an incredibly strong position. Of course, Fnatic then decimated Crazy Thieves, securing a chance at Match Point.
With the chaos getting pretty hot, TSM and E36 (Enter Force 36) headed out of the fire to try to get the upper hand and make sure they won. TSM then got taken out, so it was all down to E36, who made a great choice, letting everyone else take each other out.
E36 just needed to push two other teams into each other and take them out to get this win in the bag. It was a tense stalemate between them, VP, and Alliance, with no team wanting to take the plunge as the final circle moved in.
The Match Point team got too cocky, though, and was taken out at the very last moment. VP and Alliance clocked what was happening and went for E36 to ensure they got another match and a chance at the prize pool.
Match nine saw nine teams on Match Point going in for the win. The circle data showed TSM and Falcons were in the best position moving forward. Of course, position means nothing if you get caught out by a sneaky team surprising you. What I found very surprising at this point was the handful of teams on fewer than 20 points, and they’re obviously the ones who will be taking everyone else out in the hopes of securing a win.
As the circle data kept coming, we saw that Fnatic were right in the middle of where the map would be sending teams. This meant that they didn’t need to do anything, and everyone else would likely take each other out before Fnatic had to do anything.
Oblivion was the last team left able to win towards the end of this match, and things didn’t look great for them. While they had all three players, they were trapped with three other teams hitting them hard.
This was easily one of the most thrilling ALGS finals I’ve ever seen. Fans at the event and online worldwide went wild watching the teams eke out the matches as more and more hit Match Point. I firmly believe there’s no other eSport like this, and with loads more to look forward to in ALGS Year 6 already, it’s only going to get even more exciting from here.
I adore ALGS and can’t recommend it enough if you’re looking for an esports to get into. Make sure you follow us on all the social media platforms and check out our free Patreon to keep up to date with everything we post about it.
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