Apeks have won the Valorant Challengers 2023 Northern Europe Polaris Split 2 final at London’s Red Bull Gaming Sphere on the weekend.
This makes them back-to-back champions of the Valorant league for the UK, Ireland and Nordics, after they won the Split 1 finals earlier in the year.
The win also qualifies them for Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 EMEA in Berlin, where they will have the chance to reach the higher-tier VCT 2024 EMEA League.
Apeks defeated Fokus 3-1 in the grand final on the weekend, with three straight wins on Pearl (13-7), Lotus (14-12) and Haven (13-3) after losing the first map (Bind) 14-12.
They finished top of the Polaris group stage with an impressive 7-0 win record, before winning two seeding matches 2-0 against Fokus and Les Petit Bouffons, sending them to the grand final.
Fokus, meanwhile, beat Les Petit Bouffons 2-0 to reach the final.
Apeks’ Valorant roster consists of Magnum (Czech), Mistic (UK), Enzo (France), ShadoW (Sweden) and keiko (UK), while Fokus’ was YaBoiLewis (Wales), JUGi (Denmark), Lime (UK), KPZET (Denmark) and Waddle (UK).
Magnum and Mistic previously represented Fnatic, where they played with UK player Boaster, who recently said Fnatic ‘can win anything’.
Other teams taking part in Polaris included HSDIRR, Coalesce, who cars?, VAMONOS and eMasters, who recently disbanded following claims of unpaid wages.
‘We’re going into Ascension looking hot!’ – Apeks Mistic
Apeks UK player Mistic told ReTr00 on broadcast after the final: “I’m feeling great, obviously. This is a small little hurdle in our journey at Apeks. And I’m not saying it was an easy hurdle to jump over, that’s for sure. Fokus tested us, and we had to deal with a lot of complications throughout this split.
“Teams are showing up now, they’re getting better and better, so we have to keep up our game. But getting this win feels great, going into Ascension looking hot, it’s what we like to feel.
“We expected Fokus to bring their A-game, they came with some hunger and we recognised that in the first game. We just had to collect ourselves, made sure we stayed calm and as long as we play our game we were confident we’d win. Respect to Fokus for showing up today, and I want to say big props to the team behind me, I couldn’t have done it without them.
“We have a competitive advantage with great coaching staff, the personalities in the team, we all get on with each other so well, it’s kind of the same way I felt at Fnatic, so I’m really pleased with how things turned out and I’m happy to continue this journey with the team. Hopefully we’ll make it to VCT next year cos I want to get to another champs – and win that one! So I’m super happy with the position we’re in now and I couldn’t be more thankful.
“Thanks to the fans too, it was great hearing the crowd scream after each round win the venue here, it definitely gave us a confidence boost, and the support online has been great too. We’re going to continue doing what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll see that support from you ]in the future].”
The news comes after Excel Esports won back-to-back Polaris 2022 tournaments last year.
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.
