The first Apex Legends international tournament of the year, the ALGS 2024 Split 1 Playoffs, has ended. After one of, if not the best Match Point series ever played in the esport, REJECT WINNITY has come out on top to take the trophy. Not only is this the first LAN victory for the APAC North region, but it’s also the first LAN not won by Philip “ImperialHal” Dosen or Rhys “Zer0” Perry.
Image Credit EA/Respawn | Joe Brady
Ramping Up Through Groups
REJECT WINNITY came into the ALGS 2024 Split 1 Playoffs as the second seed from APAC North. Despite losing out on overall points in Split 1 to Fnatic, they did win the Finals to skyrocket towards the top of LAN qualification.
The core of Lee “KaronPe” Min-hyuk, Han “SangJoon” Sang-jun, and Lim “Obly” Jung-hyun attended the ALGS 2023 Championship under REALIZE and placed ninth. They’ve been consistently one of the top teams out of APAC North for multiple years in a row, but APAC North always seemed to struggle when it came to the final days of LAN. APAC North only cracked the top five teams a single time at the past four events.
As the ALGS 2024 Split 1 Playoffs got underway, we saw REJECT performing consistently. Although their first series was a bit below par at 28 points, they showed up progressively more in the later ones. Adding 47 and 61 points to their total, REJECT qualified for the Winners’ Bracket with plenty of room to space in a fifth-place tie.
Making Themselves Known
The Winners’ Bracket round is branded as the second most difficult lobby in Apex Legends behind the LAN Finals. Yet REJECT WINNITY had no problems once they got there. Their first two games resulted in second place with nine kills and a win with 11.
With 41 points after two games, REJECT instantly qualified for the Grand Finals. They would have gotten first overall, if not for their regional rivals Fnatic dropping an insane 21.75 points per game in the last four. Still, REJECT had a spot guaranteed on Apex Legends’ biggest stage and nine bonus starting points to boot. In their previous two series (12 games), REJECT WINNITY had three wins and six top-four finishes. They were making themselves staples of the final ring with a penchant for winning under high pressure. However, the highest pressure was yet to come.
Championship Sunday
The Grand Finals of the ALGS 2024 Split 1 Playoffs began with a dud for REJECT WINNITY. After wiping a squad in an early tight, they failed to make it out of rotation and fell in 17th. As a Wattson team, REJECT would be unable to effectively fight their way into zones if they couldn’t take a decent route early. The name of the game for REJECT would be to make the most out of the avenues they were given.
That chance came quickly. Game two’s zone popped right on top of REJECT’s POI of Checkpoint with the circle ending right above them. REJECT quickly looted up and shipped out, setting up on the god-spot. They did a fantastic job sniping kills on opponents trying to make rotations inward, then correctly identified the winning play by taking the final high ground. The result was a nine-kill win, putting REJECT on top of the lobby.
Now with 33 points, REJECT needed to amass 17 more to put themselves on Match Point. Now on World’s Edge, REJECT also played from a rotation-able POI in the southwest, Staging. Game four showed an excellent chance to garner points as the zone pulled Landslide, right above REJECT, but fifth place with one kept them modest.
Back on Storm Point, another North Zone blessed REJECT, and they again found themselves in the final ring. This time, second place with five kills was enough. They were the first team to reach Match Point. Well, tied for first. The familiar faces of Zer0 and DarkZero Esports had also climbed to that mark.
The Final Game
Game six was uneventful for Match Point, as neither REJECT nor DarkZero came close to a win. No additional teams made it to 50 either. Game seven, however, could have seen everything come to an end. Despite the zone pulling far east towards Overlook, DarkZero from West Skyhook/Trials made a fantastic edge rotation to find themselves in the end game. REJECT was not able to do the same.
After clearing out Overlook and going into the last ring, DarkZero looked like they were going to do it. However, Legends Gaming thwarted their final movement towards the game-ending spot. As Zer0 put it in the post-game chat, they were “one [Bangalore] smoke away from winning LAN.”
With a new lease on life, the lobby prepped for game eight. This time, seven teams had reached match point. This was likely the last game of the tournament. The zone pops, and it pulls northeast towards Climatizer. For REJECT, this is one of the worst pulls possible. It’s nearly impossible for them to get a god-spot for free. Still, they can’t put themselves on edge with Wattson. Their best bet was to set up within ring four and hope a lane opens for them to take later.
Doing what DZ Couldn’t
REJECT WINNITY chose the house on top of Epicenter Hill, an excellent spot for looking around and getting information from everywhere. Sure enough, they’d find their angle, courtesy of DarkZero themselves. As one of the most western starting teams, DarkZero was rotating in for a spot in the north. They called for a fight in god-spot against Elev8 Gaming, one that would have dire consequences.
DZ was pushed into the storm, and while they did win that fight, a third party from the Climatizer team Spacestation Gaming meant their demise. All of this fighting meant that REJECT, watching from across the zone, saw their chance. They slid down the mountain and wrapped onto DarkZero, cleaning up everyone and taking the god-spot they desperately needed.
The zone shrank and shrank, and REJECT WINNITY kept hold of their god-spot thanks to Wattson and great space denial. Disguised had the best chance of taking it for themselves but fell by the wayside before the final ring. When the dust settled, it was REJECT all alone. As the final ring closed in, REJECT WINNITY easily shot down Serenity and Cloud9, claiming the ALGS 2024 Split 1 Playoffs.
This is a historic win in Apex Legends esports. REJECT WINNITY has taken the first LAN trophy won by APAC North, also the first LAN trophy not won by the TSM or DarkZero cores. Apex has been an international game for many years now, but the fact that only two in-game leaders had ever won a trophy in the game was always a point of pain when it came to variety.
That has all changed now. If you consider that Zer0’s first LAN win came when the core was still in APAC South, Europe is now the only big region to not win a LAN trophy. (Sorry, South America, it’s improbable to ever happen.) Just knowing that a new team can come in and take a big tournament win is a huge step forward for Apex Legends. And the season is far from over. The Split 2 Playoffs and Championships will hopefully bring even more excitement later this year.
