Apex Legends: Team SoloMid and Luminosity Win GLL Tournament

Over the weekend, the first-ever GLL Apex Legends tournament took place.

The tournament ran in two different regions, the EMEA and North American cups, each worth $25,000 each. The tournaments were the first taste of tier 1 Apex Legends since the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational in September. There was lots of action, with 24 total rounds of Apex Legends throughout the weekend. Let's take a look at the hottest moments and biggest news from the event.

TSM continue to dominate Pro Season

Team SoloMid walked away with the first place prize in the GLL NA league. This comes as no surprise, since the TSM squad has won every major tournament they've attended since August. This includes a victory at the X-Games in Minneapolis and the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational.

In addition, TSM had several amazing highlights throughout the two-day event. Phillip “Imperialhal” Dosen’s amazing play on Wraith on Day 1 reiterated that they are one of the best fighting teams in the game. After watching this, it’s easy to see why they still dominate the Apex Legends professional scene.

https://twitter.com/GLLApex/status/1206344432779485190

EU Standings at GLL

Over in EMEA, the standings were very close between most teams. Luminosity emerged victoriously with 112 points, beating out Virtus Pro by 16 points. But the battle for 2nd to 5th was even closer. EMEA teams at the event were all about consistency, and many different styles emerged, from Na’Vi’s high kill gameplay to Team Reciprocity’s end game approach.

EMEA's diversity made the final circles very interesting. Luminosity ended up being the team that got both styles right, and that elevated them above the rest. Looking at the EMEA score screen, there is a clear distinction between the playstyles each team brought to the event.

Furthermore, there was some controversy over Alliance’s decision making. Alliance chose to break the rules one round by healing outside of the circle. This made them drop from their original second-place finish to 5th place. GLL made the right call maintaining the integrity of the ruleset. Pro teams will have to remain vigilant to avoid these penalizations in the future.

I didn't write anything yesterday because I was exhausted, due to being sick.

We ended up getting 2 Place due to technicalities being broken, but no more on that.

Thank you so much for your love and support during our games 🔥 @virtuspro #GoGoVP
/w @nothFPS & @Taylor9801 pic.twitter.com/Eaz33iFwhW

— Alliance Pjeh (@OfficialPjeh) December 16, 2019

The Current Apex Legends Meta

In November, we produced a piece analyzing the AM-Pro Apex Legends meta. During our analysis, we noticed an increase in Gibraltar’s pick rate. This altered the usual Pathfinder, Wattson and Wraith composition. The developing meta translated into the GLL pro teams competing within the scene. Teams like Virtus. Pro ran him on Day 1, as did Luminosity’s Maxim “Exens” Dmitruk. Gibraltar found much success in the healing department, and his ult was used to great effectiveness in end game fights.

Furthermore, Caustic got some attention in the scene. Although, the legend didn’t get much attention as the event continued. Alliance was the most notable team that ran Caustic. Alliance took the win with Caustic on round 4 of Day 1, beating out LG and K1ck in the final circle. The meta diversity that teams are running is a nice breath of fresh air. The GLL meta was much more interesting to watch than in comparison to the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational stale meta.

https://twitter.com/GLLApex/status/1205957882119884800

Overall, the GLL was a nice tournament that broke the Apex Legends esports scene's silence. The event shows how entertaining the pro scene is in rounds final moments, and there is a diversity in the meta. Now we wait for EA and Respawn to announce more news on their upcoming esports season in 2020.