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UK/Nordics Valorant Challengers North: Polaris champions Apeks have won VCT Ascension and earned a spot in the upper-tier VCT 2025 EMEA.
They turned around a 1-2 deficit to beat all-Turkish side Pcific Esport 3-2 in the grand final on the weekend.
Apeks topped group A 3-1, before sweeping aside The Ultimates and CGN Esports 2-0 to face Pcific in the final.
This means that Apeks – consisting of AvovA (Denmark), hype (Lithuania), kaajak (Poland), MOLSI (Poland) and soulcas (UK/Lithuania) – will be competing in the VCT 2025 EMEA next year, alongside the likes of Fnatic, Heretics and more.
The hard work paid off for Apeks, who fell at the final hurdle in the final of VCT Ascension EMEA 2023, where they were beaten 3-0 by Gentle Mates in the final.
In response to this, Apeks formed a new roster for 2024 in a bid to ‘stand shoulder-to-shoulder with VCT teams’. And they will now do just that.
Apeks have been utterly dominant in the Valorant Northern Europe league, Challengers North: Polaris, winning every split there over the past couple of years. Now they will set their sights higher in the VCT 2025 EMEA League.
The news comes a month after Challengers North: Polaris reset to focus on organisations over free-agent rosters.
Back in May, Apeks put all of its eggs in the Valorant basket, leaving Fortnite behind, and also CS2 ‘temporarily’, while laying off some staff and seeking fresh capital.
‘I never had this type of chemistry in a team before’ – Apeks players and coaches react to VCT Ascension win
AvovA posted an in-depth tweet, saying: “Winning Ascension 2024 still feels surreal, I don’t know when I will process it. I never had this type of chemistry with everyone in a team. I’m so happy to have spent this whole year with you guys, you’ve changed my whole perspective of what a TEAM really is.
“I could happily and proudly call every single one of you my family. Whatever the future holds for every single one of us, I’ll always be available for each one of you no matter what. I love you guys!”
hype said he was ‘super proud of the boys’.
“Everyone played well, can’t wait to start working again,” he added. “Leonieahh is the best manager and did so much for us during these times.”
UK/Lithuanian player soulcas, who lost his father earlier this year, said: “Champions of EMEA Ascension! I hope I made you proud dad.”
MOLSI added:
Head coach DANNYTO said: “3-2 vs Pcific Espor. We fucking did it. We won Ascension! Words cannot describe how I feel right now. I’m so proud of my team – incredible resilience. Let’s fucking go!”
Team manager Leonieahh added: “There is no right words on how I feel right now. I guess I’m just grateful that I got to experience this day with my team! Special thanks to everyone that worked around us tirelessly and supported the team. Also sorry for any hearing damage to everyone in the crowd!”
Assistant coach Desmo posted a recap of the 2024 season. Regarding Ascension, he said: “We had a rough start with our first loss vs GoNext and our close match vs CGN. We learned a lot as a team from these two games, and I believe having this experience made us a lot stronger, and was a main factor that we never stopped fighting in the Grand Final vs Pcfic.”
Valorant coach Spin said it was an honour to work with Danny and Desmo on the preparation for their Ascension run.
“They worked so hard to make this victory happen and it was an honour to play a small part in it. Thanks for your trust and best of luck in VCT!” Spin said.
UK & Ireland talent at VCT Ascension 2024 and a word from Scottish talent billieidk
Aside from soulcas on Apeks, there were UK players on Dsyre (waddle) and CGN Esports (aNguiSt).
In terms of talent, there was host Yinsu, analyst billieidk, as well as Hazza, Kairo, Pansy, Tombizz and Ireland’s MitchMan.
Observers included Hariboe and xilv and Ireland’s Jack Igoe, plus replay operators James Frost and Ireland’s Angel Hannigan. UK esports talent atroooix (from Poland) and ShadowDoyler (from Ireland) also worked on the event, according to Liquipedia.
Billieidk gave Esports News UK some of her highlights: “This was the first Ascension Grand Finals that Apeks won a map, never mind the whole thing (granted they had a different roster).
“Equally, PCF had an incredible story, coming up from Valorant’s in-game Premier system, making it all the way through the Turkish VCL and had a really clean run in Ascension groups and playoffs too – they only had two series that went to the full three maps, and even their lower bracket final was a 3-0 vs CGN.
“It’s really great to see the next generation of Valorant talent coming through the system Riot have in place.”
VCT 2025 EMEA teams
The VCT 2025 EMEA teams will be:
- Fnatic
- Team Vitality
- Team Heretics
- FUT Esports
- Navi
- Karmine Corp
- BBL Esports
- Team Liquid
- Gentle Mates
- GiantX
- Koi
- Apeks
They will compete in the VCT 2025 EMEA Kickoff tournament early next year, ahead of Stage 1 and Stage 2.
For 2025, Riot has also removed auto-relegation for teams that reach VCT EMEA from Ascension at the end of their term. A new performance-based system has been introduced, with more details in Riot’s Valorant path to pro update post from the summer.
Earlier this year, Fnatic won back-to-back VCT EMEA 2024 tournaments, and Team Heretics came close to winning Valorant Champions 2024.
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.
