FURIA continued their late surge towards the ALGS Playoffs, picking up a key win in day 7 of the ALGS Pro League. This win follows their second place finish on Thursday.
Furia are now up to 7th in the overall standings. They were helped by some of the teams above them, notably SZN and Complexity having difficult games. Mission impossible seems to be absolutely doable for FURIA.
Elsewhere, it was a great day for NickMercs and the Tripods. They put down their best showing of the season, helping firm up their spot in the top 20.
FURIA are back
It’s never boring with FURIA. Qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier to make the ALGS Championship. Arriving in Raleigh and reshaping the Apex meta. Dominating the Apex scene for the first part of the summer. Now, they appear to be executing mission impossible to sneak into the top 9 and qualify for the playoffs.
Pandxrz (Photo: EA)
When FURIA are on, they are on. However, they have struggled in recent months. Today’s ALGS win is their first lobby victory since September.
FURIA seemed to fall into the trap that a lot of meta leading teams find themselves in. You create a new meta, master it, and then teams catch up or innovate a counter. This leaves you in a tough spot. Change, or continue playing the set up that saw you come second on the world stage?
It must also be added that there has been some other factors affecting performance. HisWattson, their star playmaker, has had issues with motivation and was also suspended for a week from the ALGS for comments made on Twitter. To his credit, he has once again found his passion and rediscovered his form.
FURIA benefitting from the Bloodhound Bangalore combination
FURIA are one of the teams enjoying the newly popularised Bangalore Bloodhound combination. It’s a setup that falls right into their playbook. At their best FURIA are ruthless, mechanically incredible in fights but also calculated and collected in choosing their opportunities.
People wrongly say that FURIA just “ape everything”. Teams in lower tiers run around like headless chickens trying to recreate what they feel FURIA do. Yet in reality, their aggression is much more nuanced.
FURIA HisWattson at the ALGS Championships (Photo by Esports.gg)
Take game 5. FURIA walked up on NRG just outside of Jurassic. It was an isolated fight and HisWattson and co had far superior resources, so they looked to take a fight. NRG recognised the danger and hastily retreated back. You might think FURIA would just deathball onto the building that NRG ran too, and thats what FURIA copy-cats would absolutely do. Instead, they disengaged. They acknowledged that NRG would be able to bunker down, and that they would take a lot of poke damage while aggressing the building.
This is just one example, but FURIA are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for. Their micro positioning in fights helps them apply a lot of pressure to teams relatively easily. When you are fighting FURIA you feel surrounded and on the back foot purely by how they apply aggression through their movement.
NickMercs and the Tripods improving
Aside from FURIA, the Tripods will be delighted with their showing today.
Just months ago, NickMercs had never competed in Apex Legends. The Tripods grinded through the Challenger Circuit, and were awarded an invite to the Pro League.
The addition of Gent from G2 has given the Tripods some much needed direction and experience at this level of competition. What has been crucial to their success has been their determination and positive mentality. They’ve never faltered after a bad showing, and have steadily improved and built chemistry.
The Tripods are now comfortably inside the top 20, just 9 overall points from the playoff spots. Of course, if they maintain their position and reach the regional finals they could earn a spot at LAN from the match point system.
Best result so far for the Tripods
Every week the Tripods have been building on their performance.
10th – Day 112th – Day 310th – Day 414th – Day 64th – Day 7
What is clear from these placements is that the Tripods have found some form of consistency. It’s not a top 5 consistency, but by avoiding having any bottom 5 weeks they have racked up a steady points total.
Clearly, this split 1 for the Tripods was all about learning. Nick and Deeds are new to this level, and the three are new as a top team. No matter what happens over the remaining game weeks, the Tripods will be in a strong position come Pro League split 2. We might well see NickMercs at an Apex LAN before long.
Day 7’s leaders
FURIA – 78HEC – 55DarkZero – 52Tripods – 51G2 – 48
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