Sunday night saw Enes ‘AKEN’ Akguel emerge victorious at the UK Final of Red Bull Solo Q, the official 1v1 League of Legends tournament, at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London.
The final saw nine of the UK’s best League of Legends duellists go head-to-head, having battled through a tough field of over 300 amateur players in the qualifying rounds in June.
Held at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Shoreditch, London, the space for the UK final was transformed for the event into a League of Legends-inspired environment.
“It’s a real relief to come away with the win after so much practice preparing for the tournament. There’s been lots of ups and downs getting to grips with the Solo Q format, trying to improve my skills throughout the qualifying rounds, so I’m really excited to be able to move forward to the next round.”
AKEN
Turkish national and German-born player AKEN – who has been with NLC team Granit Gaming – dominated the competition at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London. He won all his group matches without dropping a single game, before putting on a stunning performance in the afternoon’s knockout rounds.
The final went to the wire in the best-of-five duel but saw AKEN eventually battle through to defeat his opponent, OneManArmy, 3-2 and take home the UK crown.
The UK final also featured commentary from LEC commentator and ex-pro player Mark ‘Caedrel’ Lamont, who interviewed the newly crowned UK champion.
Having fought to victory as the best League of Legends duellist in the UK, AKEN has secured a spot to go to the Red Bull Solo Q World Final in Frankfurt, Germany in December. There, AKEN will take on the best the world has to offer and compete for a chance to experience Riot Games’ League of Legends All-Star event first-hand.
“It’s a real relief to come away with the win after so much practice preparing for the tournament,” AKEN said. “There’s been lots of ups and downs getting to grips with the Solo Q format, trying to improve my skills throughout the qualifying rounds, so I’m really excited to be able to move forward to the next round.
“I’ve really enjoyed the entire Red Bull journey, and I can’t wait to go to the World Finals in Frankfurt in December, hopefully experience playing in front of a crowd, and then aim for Las Vegas at the All-Star event after that.”
The qualifiers for the Red Bull Solo Q UK Finals started in June, featuring open signups to give skilled duellists from across the country the chance to take part. Nine players made it through to the UK finals, narrowed down to four semi-finalists in a knockout format. AOC and SteelSeries are the organisation and production partners for Red Bull Solo Q.
What began as a grassroots tournament in 2014, Red Bull Solo Q is now a global circuit with 30 countries holding regional events across the globe.
The 1v1 format sees players face off in a unique challenge mode where they must be first to draw First Blood, reach 100cs or take down the opponent’s tower to win.
One player will take the trophy home from the world final in Germany this December.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
