Day 6 of the EMEA ALGS Pro League saw a recordbreaking bloodbath. The record for the most kills in a single game was broken not once, but twice. Aurora broke the record and then Vexed Gaming broke that record only a game later.
The 6 games, split across Worlds Edge and Storm Point saw groups B vs C go head to head. Teams are competing to place as high as possible and earn points towards the overall standings. The top 20 teams qualify for the regional finals at the end of December.
Record breakers Aurora took first place, followed up by GameWard and Nightmare esports. It took a tiebreaker to separate the two runners up.
Aurora bring Catalyst to the ALGS Pro League
Aurora, the all Russian squad, have firmly shown Catalysts value in competitive. Formerly known as Major Pushers or Team Empire Ranches, Maliwan and Cleaveee have earned a reputation for being the best 3v3 fighting team in the EMEA region.
They struggled somewhat on Worlds Edge today, but came into their element on Storm Point.
Storm Point is a much larger and more open map, and perfectly suits aggressive fighting teams like Aurora.
While plenty of teams rotate quickly to zone, or to a spot at least nearby where the zone is pulling towards, Aurora take a different approach. They sit on the edge as long as possible, looking for any possible isolated fights or crafting their armours and scrapping as much loot as possible.
Aurora breaking the meta
One of the major factors behind their success on Storm Point is their unique legend set-up. Apex Legends teams tend to follow a tried and tested formula. Movement, Scan, Anchor. Compositions like Valkyrie, Crypto and Wattson or Valkyrie, Wattson, Seer are examples of the classic formula.
Aurora have pioneered a new approach to the Pro League. Aggression, aggression and aggression.
Aurora, known then as Team Empire, performed well in the Sweden LAN
Operating Bangalore, Bloodhound and Catalyst breaks so many “rules”. You don’t have any movement legends on paper. No Valkyrie is incredibly rare in Apex at the moment. There’s no Wraith, Ash, Horizon either. They do have some anchor capabilities with Catalyst, but she is untested in competitive and has yet to make her mark. On paper, you would’ve scratched your head at this composition but the results are simply too good to ignore.
How does it work?
Fundamentally, Aurora are the best mechanical team in the EMEA ALGS Pro League hands down. They could probably play Mirage and still win tournaments. But, this legend composition is actually incredibly well thought out.
When so many teams play Valkyrie, there ends up being some room for a few non Valk teams. With so many teams playing for zone, the risk of being gatekept reduces. Once you take away her skyward dive and her ability to scan beacon, her value is much reduced.
Bloodhound and Bangalore are an incredibly strong combination. Over in North America, teams like Luminosity are using this set-up to great success. The smoke and scan combination is deadly, and Bloodhound can also scan the beacon, giving you critical knowledge.
But, how does this set-up get out of a tricky spot? Where is the portal, bubble or castle wall? Enter Catalyst. Aurora have shown that Catalyst, combined with Bangalore, can provide excellent rotational utility. Using smokes and the Catalyst wall can help you position, reset and rotate.
Take the final circle of game 4 in todays ALGS Pro League. Aurora were only a duo, yet were able to comfortably dispatch Horizon Union. The Catalyst wall completely changed the state of play in Auroras favour – it cut all lines of sight and allowed Aurora to funnel their opponents into certain peeks.
This game saw Aurora drop a huge 21 kills, which was a new record.
Vexed Gaming go nuclear in ALGS Pro League
However that record stood for only a single game. Vexed Gaming, the trio of Matafe, Unlucky and TylerFPS hit back immediately dropping a huge 23 kills. Tyler alone had a huge 14 kills, more than several teams got across the whole tournament. Tyler sits very comfortably at the top of the overall kill charts in the EMEA Pro League so far. Picked up in the summer, the new Vexed Gaming roster have made a strong start to the split.
There is nothing more terrifying in Apex Legends than when Vexed Gaming get on a roll. No team in the EMEA ALGS Pro League can snowball as effectively. If Vexed could find just a little bit more consistency, they would be far and away the best team in the region right now.
TylerFPS (Photo: Vexed Gaming)
Vexed still struggling to close out wins
However, even as they dropped 23 kills – Vexed just missed out on winning the game. They instead finished 3rd.
No team in the region has a greater imbalance towards kill points in their overall total than Vexed. They’ve dropped an average of 5.71 kills across their 4 game days. Their kills to placement points ratio sits at 74:26%. The next closest is Fire Beavers, who have a 65:35 split.
Points are points, but it feels as if Vexed are right on the cusp of really reaching a new level, not just for themselves but in the ALGS Pro League as a whole. If they can find more end game opportunities, which they will need if they want to win a match point format LAN event, they will truly be a force to be reckoned with.
Day 6’s Top 5
Aurora – 72Gameward – 58Nightmare – 58VZN – 54Firebeavers – 48
The EMEA ALGS Pro League returns on Sunday at 5pm GMT. Stay tuned to esports.gg for the full coverage of ALGS, as well as other Apex Legends news and updates
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