To Infinity and Beyond – a League of Legends team with two UK players – have won the PGL Legends of the Rift tournament, picking up $16,000 in winnings.
The team beat NA’s well-established Denial eSports brand along the way.
And UK Challenger players Maxlore (jungler) and Captain Alphari (top laner) – both from Team Infused (who also won in the ESL UK Premiership earlier this week) helped their team seal the victory.
The PGL Legends of the Rift tournament had a $40,000 prize pool up for grabs overall.
Infinity beat Millenium 2-0 in the final, but we had the chance to view the team’s semi-final against Denial eSports. Here’s our analysis of how the UK players got on.
Infinity and Beyond won the first game against Denial 20-10 thanks to some fantastic team plays across the board.
Alphari has to be one of the most aggressive UK top-laners we’ve witnessed – as Malphite in game one his well-timed flash and ulti combos onto the enemy carries helped his team initiate and clean up well.
It was another one of his combos at the 25-minute mark that caused Denial to surrender, with Alphari finishing the game with a score of 3/2/10 and 125CS.
Maxlore, meanwhile, again performed very well as a team player as Rek’Sai, making an impressive early tower dive gank top, before escaping with a smidgen of health. He ended game one with a 1/2/12 score and 79CS.
In game two, first blood went to Infinity and Beyond’s mid-laner, thanks to a gank from Maxlore, again playing as Rek’Sai.
Maxlore helped Alphari (Fiora) get the second kill top a few minutes later.
It’s obvious the two UK Challenger players gel very well together in-game too, with Alphari teleporting across the map to team up with Maxlore and secure another kill, putting their team 4-1 ahead. Moments later, Alphari ganked mid to get his third kill of the game and go on a killing spree.
Again, the pair teamed up to pick up Alphari’s fourth kill in a tower dive top. At this point, Alphari was snowballing hard, and hadn’t made a single mistake all day. After the 20-minute mark he sacrificed himself, taking two enemy champions down before he fell, going 6/1/0.
Alphari made an aggressive play to pick up another kill in a mid-lane teamfight, before the pair teamed up again to give him his eighth kill of the game.
Eventually Infinity won 20-15 just before the 40-minute mark, despite a good fight by Denial. In the end, Alphari’s score was 10/2/5 with a 295CS, while Maxlore’s was 2/2/13 with a 162CS.
It was very exciting watching this pair demolish their opposition this evening, and we’re sure the future holds bright things for them.
Back in September, Maxlore said on Twitter:
I’ve decided to quit university as I never enjoyed it and my decision to go felt rushed. I will spend 1 year to try and fulfill my (1/2)
— Maxlore (@Maxlore_LoL) September 4, 2015
passion in league and become a pro player, if I don’t make it then I gotta change my priorities in my life. GL me (2/2)
— Maxlore (@Maxlore_LoL) September 4, 2015
Let’s hope he doesn’t face the same problems that one of the UK’s other promising League of Legends players is (Tundra), who also took a year from uni to focus on playing League professionally.
The team also knocked out UK team FM-eSports earlier in the tournament, when one of FM’s players was caught in an earthquake mid-game.
You can see more from the PGL tournament and its schedule here – and check out the Infinity/Denial match VOD here!
Player line-ups
To Infinity and Beyond:
- Captain Alphari (top)
- Maxlore (jungle)
- Soz Purefect (mid)
- Salty Asian Kid (ADC, aka Critter Butter)
- obledneW (support, aka Wendelbo)
Denial eSports:
- amakinu (top, apparently a smurf account of Wickd’s)
- shook the cook (jungle)
- CozQ (mid)
- DNL Woolite (ADC)
- je suis kaas (support)
Thanks to Tom Villiers from the League of Legends UK Facebook community for the heads-up
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.
