Photo credit: Gamergy 2023 | Hara Amorós
Turkey and the UK put in performances to be proud of at the Valorant Spike Nations 2023 pro-am mixed gender tournament in Madrid on the weekend.
Team UK fell to Team Turkey 2-0 in the grand final, 9-13 on Haven and 12-14 on Split, to finish as runners-up with €5,000.
Turkey took the top prize of €8,000. As it’s a charity tournament, the prize money is donated to charity.
Team UK finished third in the six-team group stage to reach the playoffs, where they beat France 2-1 in the semi-final to set up a rematch against Turkey.
Credit to Turkey – they went unbeaten throughout the whole finals, which took place at Gamergy 2023 in Madrid, Spain.
Team UK included soulcas (who recently joined Apeks), L1NK, YaBoiLewis, Lime, Scarlett and Queen Puffy, with PAL and Acre as coaches.
Team Turkey featured Izzy, Muj, schnellÆ, glovee, ip0TT and Smurfette, with GAIS, zGGr and cigdemT as coaches.
The broadcast also featured UK casters Hazza and Kairo among others.
About Spike Nations 2023
Valorant Spike Nations EMEA is part of the official Valorant Off//Season 2023 circuit and featured six teams consisting of amateur and pro players, including both men and women.
The slogan, ‘All nations in unity’, represents the spirit of the competition, which aims to bring together people from different backgrounds and cultures.
The competition was organised between Riot Games and GGTech, and the finals took place at Gamergy Spain, which was held last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with over 69,000 attendees.
Gamergy also held two editions in Argentina and two in Mexico (with three in Mexico planned for 2024).
The event has already been announced for the first time in the USA, where the Call of Duty Major will be contested, hosted by Miami Heretics.
The news comes after Valorant Spike Nations took place in 2022, 2021 and 2020, with previous events organised with Blast.
Team UK and Turkey react to Spike Nations 2023 final
UK players and coaches had the following to say following their runner-up finish:
Some of Turkey’s players and coaches added the following.
schnellÆ said: “I’m really proud for Turkey. Our goal was not only to be champions, but to be undefeated, and we achieved that. I love my teammates and country, thanks for supporting us and see you next year guys, keep working.”
zGGr said (as translated by Twitter): “I just arrived at the hotel and saw your nice congratulatory messages. Thank you very much to everyone. It is a great pride for us to fly our flag in Europe.
“I would like to thank all my teammates, especially Berke Mol and GAIS who supported me and stood by me. We played incredibly well. Well done to everyone. European champion TURKEY.”
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.
