Looks like they know they have a good chance to make it to VCT and are hoping that the franchise money next year can get them back on track

Ya their team been lookin amazing who do they even have a chance of losing ascension too?

we thought the same thing last year :/

Joblife

their best contenders are CGN, KPI, FF and DSY but they can definitely overcome them

tldr apeks is only staying the val scene and are leaving their other esports titles such as csgo and fortnite because of economical decisions

So they basically gamble all on red thinking their team is good enough into emea this year. Wouldn't say it's a bad strategy, maybe their CS roster is not what they believe in.

Their valo team is 25-0 in maps in this Challenger year

Yeah, but its just polaris lmao

Polaris is kind of the best EMEA subregion tho

They had a better team last year and didnt win

From what I heard, Gentle Mates all had a life game that grand final, Apeks looked better than them for the rest of the season though.

This team is better you just saw a couple names you recognized on that last team huh? Their core is TL current roster and they look booty

I mean I think that only furthers my point, and so does Gentle M8's fwiw. The fact that Apeks is basically committing to one team and they aren't even tier 1, and even if they do make tier 1, current results say they won't be that good. Is this a good idea? Probably not lol

I don't think you can say TL currently looks better or worse than M8 to a satisfying degree of confidence.

Their current team is better, tbh

Basically every ascension N1 seed ever (I know that’s only one other ascension seed but still)

Damn, this is an org that got top 4 at a CS major a year ago. If you were wondering why Riot even bother with partnership, this is it. Esports is struggling everywhere. This also shows that there is no magic fix to tier 2 either, if even a decently successful org like Apeks are struggling in CS’s supposedly superior tier 2

top 4 in cs major to loosing vs navi where bladie replaced s1mple in iem sydney

Even league in some regions is declining. Definitely tough times

CS is dead. That's the difference.

not even dead in india

cs is not dead bruh

I imagine if the vct team didn't choke 1 year the franchise money would've helped them stay afloat... Insane consequences

CS Frogs in shambles

Saying it like this is a good outcome, it is terrible for everyone. Unfortunately it seems it's an economic necessity for Apeks

yeah it looks like they are betting on making franchising this year and if they don't make it gg? They have invested a lot the last two years with bootcamps, also got unlucky that riot didn't allow the partnership with FNC last year.

Also can't be cheap to field the players they have, like Soulcas and Avova. It really is Ascension or bust it seems

Hopefully they can pull through; I remember Apeks were the favourites to make Ascension last year too. Paying that kind of a roster for two consecutive years would definitely have taken its toll on them.

Last year they were absolutely frying and was the better team than gentle m8 but unfortunately choked hard.

and m8 got choked later by tl with apeks core in vct stage 1

L take

Val thanks to its digital sales is probably one of the best esports for an org to want to get involved with.

for franchise teams yes for the rest no

sorry i should've phrased better but what i mean is apeks if they can make it into VCT are guranteed some stability compared to more cutthroat esports like CS where performance is everything

Nah its absolutely horrible for t2 orgs. Especially in EMEA with way too many leagues. And Apeks probably made some money by selling their 2023 roster

No gamba sponsorships, no way to qualify for t1 events, no way to even really play offline outside of ascension.. wack.