In a two-day competition featuring 20 teams, Team SoloMid claimed the gold at the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis. TSM took home US$30,000 for their efforts.
TSM took first place at the first professional Apex Legends event. (Image screencapped from twitch.tv/espnesports)
The tournament involved 15 directly invited teams and five teams that qualified through regional invitationals. Competing alongside TSM were the likes of NRG Esports, Counter Logic Gaming, Fnatic NA, Tempo Storm and others.
TSM is composed of Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen, Mac “Abralelie” Kenzie Beckwith and Jordan “Reps” Wolfe. They squeaked out the win with a tight five-point margin over the second-place team, Team Reciprocity. Their first-place finishes in rounds four and eight, as well as second place in the final round of the tournament, went a long way. Points were assigned by placement, with a single point given for each elimination in a given round. TSM racked up an impressive 65 kills in 12 matches, though they were out-killed by Team Reciprocity who had 68.
The final standings and scores were as follows:
| Team | Placement | Score |
| Team SoloMid | 1st | 125 |
| Team Reciprocity | 2nd | 120 |
| Sentinels | 3rd | 111 |
| Fnatic NA | 4th | 103 |
| Tempo Storm | 5th | 95 |
| Misfits | 6th | 86 |
| Rogue | 7th | 73 |
| T1 | 8th | 71 |
| Team Liquid | 9th | 71 |
| Lazarus EU | 10th | 70 |
| Alliance | 11th | 61 |
| NAGANO1998 | 12th | 59 |
| NRG Esports | 13th | 59 |
| Luminosity Gaming | 14th | 52 |
| Cloud9 | 15th | 41 |
| Athletico | 16th | 26 |
| Counter Logic Gaming | 17th | 26 |
| Complexity Gaming | 18th | 25 |
| Gen.G esports | 19th | 19 |
| Spacestation Gaming | 20th | 18 |
This event used custom lobbies to put the teams into the same map for each of the twelve games, rather than tallying results out of public games. It was our first glimpse at the kind of high-quality Apex Legends competition we can expect from the professionals as the Apex Legends competitive scene continues to develop.
Plays such as the one in the Twich clip below that lead to Fnatic winning the fifth round should whet fan appetites for future competitions. The quality of competition is so much higher when teams face each other directly. It’s exciting to watch this level of Apex Legends play, when every game comes down to the wire, with squads jockeying for position around a tiny late-game ring.
Held this year in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Summer X Games features Moto X, Skateboarding and BMX events, as well as esports. The X Games were first held in the summer of 1995, with esports debuting as part of the event in 2014. The X Games continue on Sunday with the Men’s Skateboard Street Best Trick, Wendy’s Men’s Skateboard Park, Women’s Skateboard Street, and Dave Mirra’s BMX Park Best Trick. The event closes with an Incubus concert.
The next major tournament on the horizon for Apex Legends will be the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational announced by Respawn and Electronic Arts for mid-September.
