ALGS, the Apex Legends Championship Series 2022, has concluded with DarkZero emerging as victors, but many players were not able to play.
More than 30 players missed out on the event in Raleigh, North Carolina, due to a mix of visa issues and positive covid tests.
A trio of UK Apex Legends pro esports players were affected in particular, with two contracting covid and one unable to secure a visa on time.
Jmw, who won the recent Apex Legends Global Series Split 2 playoffs as an emergency sub player, contracted covid and was unable to play with Invictus at the ALGS finals, as was his UK teammate Noiises.
UK player Stelfalador and US player Rkn stood in for the players, and Invictus ended up finishing 19th out of 40 teams in the finals, taking home $18,000.
Another UK Apex player, Element 6’s Naghz, was unable to secure a visa, so fellow UK player Smeggytoe stepped in as a substitute for him.
Element 6 co-founder and coach, Sineska, said in a Twitlonger ahead of the event: “Unfortunately, Naghz didn’t get his visa in time – because he visited his family in Iran 10 years ago – and therefore can’t play in the ALGS Championship.
Getting Smeggy ready to join us on such short notice is a story in itself, as he was not vaccinated for covid-19, which is one of the requirements to be eligible to play. He got the Jansen/J&J vaccine which turned out not to be available in the United Kingdom, so we flew him over to Berlin (Newcastle-Dublin-Düsseldorf-Berlin) to get vaccinated and back to the UK (Berlin-Munich-Dublin-Newcastle), all within 36 hours. In the meantime, his ESTA got approved so this is what we call mission accomplished.”
Element 6 finished 27th, taking home $10,200.
You can see more Apex Legends players who missed out on the ALGS 2022 LAN on this Liquipedia page.
DarkZero were those who finished top, taking home $500,000 of the $2m prize pool. Their Australian roster Zer0, Genburten and Sharky gave DarkZero, were previously with Reignite.
Furia, 100 Thieves and one London-headquartered organisation also made the top four.
Fnatic reach top four at ALGS 2022 Championship
Fnatic finished fourth in the tournament, winning $160,000.
Fnatic recently announced they had returned to Apex Legends with a Japan-based team.
It was a solid achievement for Fnatic considering the team was only recently picked up. The roster consists of YukaF, MatsuTasu and Meltstera, with Kamaneko on board as coach.
The news comes one year after Fnatic secured $17m in funding to support their expansion into Japan and Asia-Pacific, and a few months after Fnatic entered Rainbow Six Siege esports in Japan.
UK talent at ALGS 2022 Championship
Other UK players in the finals not yet mentioned in this article also included brynn (Invictus), SirDel (GMT), Slayers (Element 6) and Yuki (Alliance).
Then, on the broadcast stage, a host of talent took part including interviewer James Banks (pictured, top right), as well as casters Mark ‘Onset’ Hatcher, Dan Gaskin and James Bardolph.
Apex has seen a solid mix of UK talent get involved in the game in recent years, as well as streamers and other personalities.
Related Apex article: Teams.gg adds Apex Legends and Fortnite to in-game team-finding service which aims to help players avoid toxicity
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.
