UK esports organisation Verdant have been crowned champions of the League of Legends NLC Aurora Cup 2023 following their grand final win this evening.
They defeated fellow UK esports team Fourth Wall in a straight 3-0 to win the annual cup tournament, which combines UK, Ireland and Nordic teams from across the divisions of the Northern League of Legends Championship.
Verdant topped their group before going on to beat Ruddy, Jlingz and Fourth Wall. The winning roster consists of Finnish top-laner Nille, Swedish jungler Sn1lle, Danish mid-laner Erolle, Portuguese bot-laner FlickeR and UK support player FGG.
Verdant also get the win as they partner with ENDX, the CS fantasy trading platform.
Runners-up Fourth Wall credited their players with ‘some great performances to get us to the final’.
Their roster consists of Finnish top-laner Sleeping, Swedish jungler Cast, mid-laner Fade, ADC Gravepast and support player Mxe, with the latter three players from Turkey.
The 3rd/4th place teams were Lazy in Life and Jlingz Esports, the organisation set up by professional footballer Jesse Lingaard two years ago.
Casters for the NLC Aurora Cup 2023 included a mostly UK line-up of Hiprain, Eragon, Veteran, Middlecott, Roodood, Initialise and Foxdrop, plus Danish caster Duckling.
There are more results from the NLC Aurora Cup 2023 on the tournament’s Liquipedia page.
‘The perfect way to end the year’ – Verdant owner on winning the NLC Aurora Cup 2023
Sami Cunningham, owner of Verdant, told Esports News UK: “We’re thrilled to be taking home the trophy. All year we’ve been at the top of the league fighting for them, but never quite managed to close it out. It’s the perfect way to end the year.
“It’s been a tough two years in the NLC but for us to come out with a second place, third place, a showing at EU Masters and to win the Aurora Cup is incredible to think about.
“Now it’s time to take a few days of rest before I have to start planning for Spring Split!”
Verdant LoL director Richard ‘Froomie’ Froom, added:
Related article: A few months ago, NLC changes were announced, with the LoL National Leagues including the UK-specific UKEL returning.
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.
